Voters must show ID in election fraud areas
VOTERS in towns and cities with large Muslim communities where there are concerns about election fraud will have to show their passports or driving licences before casting their ballot.
The Government will today say that voters should produce identification to reduce “endemic corruption” and protect the democratic process.
The voter ID scheme will be trialled in 18 areas which have been identified by police and the Electoral Commission as being “vulnerable” to voting fraud, including Bradford and Birmingham. The pilot schemes will take place in local elections in May 2018 before being rolled out nationwide.
The Government will also introduce legislation to ban political campaigners from handing in large numbers of completed postal ballots on election day,
after concerns that activists are “harvesting” votes to boost support. Ministers are prepared to raise the maximum sentence for electoral fraud from two years to 10 to act as a “deterrent”, while the Government is also considering checking people’s nationality to prevent immigrants not entitled to take part in UK elections from voting. Police will also get greater powers to stop “intimidation” at polling stations.
In an article for The Telegraph website, Chris Skidmore, minister for the constitution, said: “We already ask that people prove who they are in order to rent a car, buy a mortgage or travel abroad – and I believe we should go further by taking the same approach to protect voting rights.”
Birmingham was the scene of a notorious ballot-rigging case in 2004 which the presiding judge said would “disgrace a banana republic”.
Pilot schemes will also take place in Blackburn with Darwen, Bradford, Bristol, Burnley, Calderdale, Coventry, Derby, Hyndburn, Kirklees, Luton, Oldham, Pendle, Peterborough, Slough, Tower Hamlets, Walsall, and Woking.
The electoral commission has said there is a particular concern at the “vulnerability of some South Asian communities, specifically those with roots in parts of Pakistan or Bangladesh, to electoral fraud”.
The plans are a response to a Government-commissioned report by Sir Eric Pickles, a former Conservative minister, who had suggested earlier this year that election fraud has been allowed to take place in Muslim communities because of “political correctness”.