Just because people do not currently have a form of ID does not mean they cannot get it if it is required. Simply spend the 4 years prior to an election improving the access to photo ID and encouraging people to acquire a photo ID.
This lot in charge will wait until the last few weeks before the election, announce a scheme run by a Donor and that scheme will then have so many delays and faults that the majority of the ID’s will arrive late. There’s also the issue of it relying on people to apply, that breeds voter apathy.
For any security measure you have to weigh up effectiveness vs usability and then also account for the risk factor.
If you block 1 case by using photo id but prevent 1000 people from voting it is a rather poor return on investment.
Out of the voting options postal votes is far more vulnerable to misuse. Oddly enough though the tories dont seem interested in that. Why is that do you think?
Why are they going for the option which most impacts people who dont vote for them regardless of the low risk vs the more risky variant which people who vote for them use?
This echo’s my thoughts. If the current system has 30m voters currently (65% turnout of 45m eligible) and only 100 attempted illegal votes in person then that ratio is so small that it’s not worth considering statistically. If the ID system reduces the voter turnout by 2-3m or more then it actually makes the effect of the odd illegal vote have more effect, but the effect is still so tiny it doesn’t matter therefore the whole scheme has just reduced the voter pool. Those voters who couldn’t vote are far more likely to be from disadvantaged, poor or ethnic households that generally don’t vote Tory. That’s straight-out voter manipulation.
The issue of postal votes is far more open to abuse. The wife/husband can easily intercept their partner’s vote or force them to vote a certain way. Deceased votes can be cast. Forms can be forged. But making that system more robust and harder to access would potentially rule out votes from the elderly who have trouble getting to the polling station on the day or people who live abroad, all traditionally Tory voters.
Even if it is all being introduced legitimately and without political bias (highly unlikely) it still favours Tory votes over other parties and on that point alone it should not be introduced.
Posted 1 year ago
