Voter ID discourages the young and the poor
THE political parties’ leaflets have been encouraging us all to vote.
Not voting undermines democracy, producing results that are not inclusive or representative of the country as a whole.
The most shocking aspect of the recent local elections, however, is the Government’s deliberate attempt to restrict certain people from voting by insisting on photographic identity documents at polling stations.
The Government bulldozed this photo ID requirement through Parliament at great speed, against all the evidence, and even against the wishes of some of its own MPS.
David Davis, for example, told Sky News the other week that voter ID is “preventing something that doesn’t happen. This is an answer to a problem that’s not there. Are we actually going to discriminate against the old and the poor in our election system?”
The requirement for voter ID cannot be justified by the evidence.
Even if there had been more evidence of fraud, the Government has given the game away by accepting only certain kinds of voter ID. An older person’s bus pass is acceptable proof, but a student union card or a younger person’s bus pass is not. Similar rules throughout the country make one aim very clear – young people are dangerous because theirs may be a protest vote.
The damage goes much further than the young, and is essentially means-based. A passport is permissible evidence, but that excludes those unable to afford a passport or never need to go abroad. A driving licence is permissible, but that again excludes very many. It’s the poor of all ages as well as the young who are more likely to be excluded from voting.
The House of Lords proposed many acceptable forms of ID which could only be obtained by proving who you were. The Government rejected them all in favour of shoring up its traditional vote.
I am lucky to have the required documents, but, as a senior citizen, it grieves me that once again our young people and the poor of all ages are being deliberately discouraged from taking part in the democratic process.