Challenge over voter ID trials is rejected

COURT OF Appeal judges have rejected a legal challenge over voter ID trials, including one in Yorkshire in last year’s local elections.

Ten local authorities took part in pilots at elections in May last year, with voters in the participating areas asked to meet ID requirements, as set out by each authority, to be able to cast their vote.

The pilots, announced by Ministers in 2018, were run by the Government with a view to rolling out voter ID nationwide in future elections.

Neil Coughlan, 66, from Witham in Essex, brought a crowdfunded legal action against the Government at the High Court in London, arguing the pilots would prevent people from voting.

But in a ruling yesterday, three senior judges dismissed his appeal.

In the judgment, Lord Justice McCombe said Mr Coughlan, a former district and town councillor, believes requirements for identification of voters at elections “tend to disenfranchise the poor and vulnerable and render it less likely that their electoral voices will be heard”.

However, he said the use of the power to test voter ID in a pilot scheme does not override the right to vote at all.

The judge, sitting with Lords Justice Underhill and Green, said: “Clearly, the right to vote at any election is an important right and courts will be vigilant to prevent the use of so-called ‘Henry VIII’ powers of this type by Ministers to curtail such an important right by mere order, unless the claimed use of the power has been clearly and distinctly conferred by Parliament.

“In my judgment, however, the use of the power ... to test a pilot scheme of this type does not in truth override or abrogate the right to vote at all.”

One of the trials was in Craven in North Yorkshire.