Govt faces legal challenge over voter ID checks

LONDON: Government plans to introduce voter ID checks are to be challenged in court on the basis they deter people from voting.

Neil Coughlan, 64, has launched a legal case – backed by a £10,000 online fundraising campaign - to prevent the scheme being piloted at next year’s local elections.

He said he wants “to stand up against a government that is taking our democracy down a very dangerous path.”

Coughlan, who does not have any form of photo ID, has received support from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the Electoral Reform Society (ERS), who claim the government’s plans are “undemocratic” and a waste of taxpayer’s money.

Trials of mandatory ID CHECKS In ive areas at the local elections in May were CRITICISED AFTER OFICIAL igures showed that 1,036 people did not have the right ID and around 340 of those did not return to the polling station to vote.

The Independent visited one polling station in Bromley during May’s local election and watched as 76-year-old man who had lived in the area for 40-years was turned away because he did not have a bank card or passport.

Peter White said he was “shocked” to be turned away, adding: “This is a nonsense scheme.”

As many as 3.5 million people, or 7.5 per cent of the electorate, do not have any photo ID, according to the Electoral Commission. That increases to 11 million if the ID is restricted to passports and driving licences.

The government claims that voter ID checks are a “common sense next step to securing the integrity of our elections.”

Constitution minister Chloe Smith MP SAID: “WE want people to HAVE Confi-dence that our elections are safeguarded against any threat or perception of electoral fraud.”

Experts have warned that the plans make voting harder for people from disadvantaged backgrounds and risk DISENFRANCHISING A signiicant proportion of the electorate.

Dr Jess Garland, the ERS director of policy and research, said: “Ministers should stop wasting time and taxpayers’ money pursuing these dangerous and undemocratic plans, and focus on the real democratic problems Britain faces instead. While the government goes after British voters without access to the right ID, our electoral laws leave us open to signiicant INTERFERENCE From those with deep pockets, with analogue-age rules on political funding and a lack of transparency in online political advertising.

“The government are rearranging the deckchairs while our democracy veers towards an iceberg. This potential legal challenge should be yet another wake-up call for ministers to think again.”