Monday, May 01, 2023
Tory voter suppression to be hidden by failure to count turn-aways
The Independent reports that a government minister has admitted that the number of people turned away from voting because they don't have the right ID will not be fully recorded.
The paper says that the admission by Communities minister Rachel Maclean, yesterday, means that the effect of the government's new voter ID policies – which critics have characterised as voter suppression – may never be known:
While people turned away at polling station desks will be recorded, people who are alerted at the door that they will need ID and who then leave will not count, the minister said.
"If someone decides not to exercise the right to vote in a free and democratic society, it’s not for the agent of a local authority to intrusively ask why that person decides not to vote," the minister told MPs.
The government says the new requirements for voter ID will help protect the security of elections, despite in-person voter fraud being almost unheard of at scale in British elections.
May's local elections will be the first in Great Britain where voters will be required to have some form of photographic ID in order to vote.
Speaking in the Commons yesterday Labour MP Nick Smith said voter suppression had "already occurred" because many voters who needed ID still did not have it.
"For this set of elections the Electoral Commission tell me that 250,000 to 350,000 people should have applied for a voter ID certificate," he said.
"As of the deadline just 85,000 were issued despite the estimated £4 million advertising budget.
"Given just the voters requiring voter ID applied for the certificate, does the minister accept that voter suppression has already occurred?"
Ms Maclean said she rejected this conclusion.
The Minister believes that it is not the government's responsibility to encourage people to vote or understand why they did not.
The paper says that the admission by Communities minister Rachel Maclean, yesterday, means that the effect of the government's new voter ID policies – which critics have characterised as voter suppression – may never be known:
While people turned away at polling station desks will be recorded, people who are alerted at the door that they will need ID and who then leave will not count, the minister said.
"If someone decides not to exercise the right to vote in a free and democratic society, it’s not for the agent of a local authority to intrusively ask why that person decides not to vote," the minister told MPs.
The government says the new requirements for voter ID will help protect the security of elections, despite in-person voter fraud being almost unheard of at scale in British elections.
May's local elections will be the first in Great Britain where voters will be required to have some form of photographic ID in order to vote.
Speaking in the Commons yesterday Labour MP Nick Smith said voter suppression had "already occurred" because many voters who needed ID still did not have it.
"For this set of elections the Electoral Commission tell me that 250,000 to 350,000 people should have applied for a voter ID certificate," he said.
"As of the deadline just 85,000 were issued despite the estimated £4 million advertising budget.
"Given just the voters requiring voter ID applied for the certificate, does the minister accept that voter suppression has already occurred?"
Ms Maclean said she rejected this conclusion.
The Minister believes that it is not the government's responsibility to encourage people to vote or understand why they did not.
And yet Ministers have taken it upon themselves to introduce unnecessary measures to actually discourage voting amongst those most likely to oppose the Tories.
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I have little doubt that where the party can run to polling agents, these will record turn-aways as well as electoral numbers. The collated results should be interesting.
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