Voter ID rules ‘discouraged’ some people from voting in general election, watchdog finds
The requirement to bring photo identification to vote in the general election “discouraged some people” from casting their ballot, a watchdog has said.
The rule came into force in 2023 after Boris Johnson’s Conservative government introduced the new law to parliament.
But the first time the impact was tested at a general election came in July this year.
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While the Electoral Commission said “almost everyone” was able to take part “successfully”, around 16,000 people could not vote because of the ID requirement and others were put off from voting entirely.
Research carried out by the watchdog showed 0.25% of the public were turned away initially due to not having the right documents, with two-thirds of them later returning with the correct ID – but 0.08% were unable to do so.
Its polling also showed 4% of those who chose not to vote said the law was part of their reason for not participating – with those from poorer backgrounds most likely to cite not having accepted ID.
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Why do you need ID to vote?
The commission’s chief executive Vijay Rangarajan said: “This was the first time all voters across the UK were required to show photographic ID at a general election, and the data shows almost everyone was able to do so successfully.
“However, our research shows that the need for ID discouraged some people from voting – and we don’t want to see any voters lose their say.
“Public awareness of the need for voter ID is high across the UK, but there are still groups of voters that are less likely to be aware of the need to show ID or that do not have an accepted form.
“Everyone eligible should have the opportunity to vote, which is why we are recommending changes that will support those who do not currently have ID and improve the accessibility of elections, while maintaining the security of the process.”
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Among the recommendations suggested by the watchdog was a review of the list of accepted IDs, calling for it to include student Oyster cards and the Veteran card, as well as a review of the free voter authority certificate to see if issuing it digitally could increase take up.
The commission said it would review how its own public campaigns could offer more help to “minimise the barriers to voting”.
Labour voted against the law when it was brought into force by the Tories.
However, it has not committed to revoking it, pledging in its manifesto to instead “address the inconsistencies in voter ID rules that prevent legitimate voters from voting”.
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A spokesperson from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “The government is committed to strengthening our democracy and making sure every legitimate voter can exercise their democratic right to vote.
“The government will carefully consider the report as part of our thorough evaluation of voter ID rules, to understand how they impacted voters, before bringing forward proposals in due course.”
A Conservative Party spokesperson also defended the law, saying: “Voter identification has been tried and tested in Northern Ireland since it was introduced by the last Labour government.
“In last year’s local elections in England, 99.75% cast their vote successfully, and these new figures for the general election in Great Britain show that 99.92% did so too.
“One would expect these figures to rise further as the practice is embedded, and public awareness increases yet further.”
Politics
Red Wall MPs should focus on two-child benefit cap rather than winter fuel, Harriet Harman says
Red Wall MPs should push for the two-child benefit cap to be lifted rather than a reversal of the winter fuel payment policy, Baroness Harriet Harman has said.
Baroness Harman, the former Labour Party chair, told Sky’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast that this would hand the group a “progressive win” rather than simply “protesting and annoying Sir Keir Starmer” over winter fuel.
Earlier this week, a number of MPs in the Red Wall – Labour’s traditional heartlands in the north of England – reposted a statement on social media in which they said the leadership’s response to the local elections had “fallen on deaf ears”.
They singled out the cut to the winter fuel allowance as an issue that was raised on the doorstep and urged the government to rethink the policy, arguing doing so “isn’t weak, it takes us to a position of strength”.
Labour’s decision to means test the policy has snatched the benefit away from millions of pensioners.
But Baroness Harman said a better target for the group could be an overhaul of George Osborne’s two-child benefit cap.
The cap, announced in 2015 as part of Lord David Cameron’s austerity measures, means while parents can claim child tax credit or Universal Credit payments for their first and second child, they can’t make claims for any further children they have.
Labour faced pressure to remove the cap in the early months of government, with ministers suggesting in February that they were considering relaxing the limit.
Baroness Harman told Beth Rigby that this could be a sensible pressure point for Red Wall MPs to target.
She said: “It could be that they have a kind of progressive win, and it might not be a bad thing to do in the context of an overall strategy on child poverty.
“Let’s see whether instead of just protesting and annoying Sir Keir Starmer, they can build a bridge to a new progressive set of policies.”
Jo White, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw and a member of the Red Wall group, suggested that her party’s “connection” to a core group of voters “died” with the decision to means test the winter fuel payment for pensioners.
“We need to reset the government,” she told Electoral Dysfunction. “The biggest way to do that is by tackling issues such as winter fuel payments.
“I think we should raise the thresholds so that people perhaps who are paying a higher level of tax are the only people who are exempt from getting it.”
Pic: AP
A group of MPs in the Red Wall, thought to number about 40, met on Tuesday night following the fallout of local election results in England, which saw Labour lose the Runcorn by-election and control of Doncaster Council to Reform UK.
Following the results, Sir Keir said “we must deliver that change even more quickly – we must go even further”.
Some Labour MPs believe it amounted to ignoring voters’ concerns.
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One of the MPs who was present at the meeting told Sky News there was “lots of anger at the government’s response to the results”.
“People acknowledged the winter fuel allowance was the main issue for us on the doorstep,” they said.
“There is a lack of vision from this government.”
Another added: “Everyone was furious.”
Downing Street has ruled out a U-turn on means testing the winter fuel payment, following newspaper reports earlier this week that one might be on the cards.
A man from the US state of Virginia will spend over three decades behind bars after being convicted of sending crypto to the terrorist organization commonly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Federal Judge David Novak sentenced Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa to 30 years and four months in prison on May 7 for sending over $185,000 to the Islamic State, the Department of Justice said on May 8.
Prosecutors said that from around October 2019 until October 2022, the 35-year-old Chhipa collected and sent money to female Islamic State members in Syria, which helped them escape prison camps and funded fighting.
The Justice Department said Chhipa would raise funds for the United Nations-designated terror organization through social media — receiving money online, or traveling hundreds of miles to accept donations in person.
He’d convert the money into crypto and send it to Turkey for it to be smuggled to Islamic State members across the border in Syria, prosecutors said.
A federal jury convicted Chhipa in December, finding him guilty on a charge of conspiracy to provide support to a terrorist organization and four charges of providing and attempting to provide support to a terrorist organization.
“This defendant directly financed ISIS in its efforts to commit vile terrorist atrocities against innocent citizens in America and abroad,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “This severe sentence illustrates that if you fund terrorism, we will prosecute you and put you behind bars for decades.”
Chhipa tried to flee US during FBI probe
Prosecutors said that during the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into Chhipa, he tried to flee the country to escape prosecution and tried to hide his tracks through a series of actions seemingly aimed at confusing authorities.
According to a motion for detention filed in August, FBI agents searched Chhipa’s house on Aug. 2, 2019, and that night Chhipa drove to a bank, withdrew $1,800 from an ATM, and then went to a Taco Bell, where he paid a stranger for a ride to a relative’s house. The relative then drove him to a grocery store.
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Three days later, prosecutors said Chhipa “purchased a series of bus tickets using variations and/or misspelling of his name and recently created email accounts.”
He then travelled from Virginia to Mexico and onto Guatemala. He then bought tickets to fly from Guatemala to Panama, then onto Germany, and then to Egypt, but an Interpol Blue Notice was issued, and he was returned to the US.
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