More than 700 people were denied a vote for not having ID in May’s local elections, official figures reveal today.
The huge tide of voters turned away, including an 87-year-old woman who’d voted all her life, came in a trial of controversial measures running in just 10 areas across the UK.
In Derby 256 people were turned away, then didn’t return to vote. The figure was 101 in Pendle, 73 in Braintree and 69 in Broxtowe.
By comparison there were just eight cases of alleged ‘personation’, in person voter fraud at a polling station, last year. That’s down from 28 in 2017, 45 in 2016, 26 in 2015 and 21 in 2014.
Campaigners say the Electoral Commission’s figures prove new requirements to show ID are a “sledgehammer to crack a nut”.
Scroll down for the full figures.
(Image: PA)
Labour’s Shadow Minister for voter engagement Cat Smith said more than 1,000 people have now been denied a vote since pilots began last year.
She added: “It is now clear that the Government’s fixation with Voter ID is a blatant attempt by the Tories to rig the result of future elections by voter suppression.
“For years Labour warned that restrictive identification requirements will make it harder for people to vote.
“But the Government refused to listen, denying countless citizens a voice in our democratic process.
“We cannot allow the Tories to shut down democracy, which is why we are calling for these undemocratic and unpopular pilot schemes to be abandoned immediately. “
Today’s official figures, provided by the Electoral Commission, show between 0.003% and 0.7% of eligible voters were turned away in each of the 10 trial areas.
(Image: PA)
In total 1,968 people were initially refused a ballot paper across the 10 trial areas for not having the right ID.
More than half of those later returned to vote. But 740 of them did not later return with ID – indicating they were denied a vote.
The Electoral Commission said: “We cannot speculate or draw any conclusions about the reasons why these people did not return, because it was not possible for polling station staff to collect information from them.”
The figure may be higher as Watford recorded a variation of figures and we have used the lowest possible in this article.
Despite the figures, the government branded the pilots “another success” as more than 99% of people got a vote.
Minister for the Constitution Kevin Foster said: “Stealing someone’s vote is stealing their voice and any instance of this is an unacceptable crime. The very perception our current electoral system could allow voter fraud undermines its integrity.
“This government has always maintained that voter ID is a reasonable and proportionate measure to prevent this and today’s data provides further, welcomed analysis to support this.
“If the public have confidence in our electoral system then they are more likely to participate in it.”
(Image: UPPA/Photoshot)
Campaigners have claimed poorer and ethnic minority voters are more likely to suffer for not having ID. The Commission did not find evidence of this – but that was because it was unable to.
“Polling station staff were not asked to collect demographic data about the people who did not come back,” the watchdog said.
“That means we have no direct evidence to tell us whether people from particular backgrounds were more likely than others to find it hard to show ID.”
The Electoral Commission did find a “strong correlation” in Derby between the proportion of each ward’s population being from an Asian background and the proportion being turned away.
This echoed results from a previous pilot in Watford, the watchdog said. In Pendle there was also a similar but “weak” correlation. But there was no correlation in Woking and Watford this time round.
The Commission said: “The evidence is therefore mixed.
“It is important to be clear that this correlation analysis does not definitively suggest that Asian voters were disproportionately affected by the requirement to show ID.
“However, this does emphasise the importance of ensuring that the ID requirements are suitable for all and that any public awareness activities are genuinely effective across all communities.”
Ministers spent £1.7m on the trial of ID checks in five areas last year, with voter ID checks expected to cost between £4.3m and £20.4m if rolled out in a full general election.
Craig Westwood, Director of Communications of the Electoral Commission, said “nearly everyone” was able to vote easily.
But he added: “Important questions however remain about how an ID requirement would work in practice, particularly at a national poll with higher levels of turnout.
“As the pilots have taken place in a limited number of areas and at local elections, we are not able to draw definitive conclusions from them.
“Government and Parliament now need to consider carefully the available evidence about the impact of different approaches, on the accessibility and security of polling station voting.
“In addition to the pilots held in England, it will be important to reflect on the experiences of voters in Northern Ireland where voter ID has been a requirement for many years.”
In May we told how an 87-year-old woman had been turned away for not having ID despite voting in every election in her adult life.
The pensioner attacked the “stupid” system after taking a taxi to her local polling station in Pendle, Lancashire, only to be told she couldn’t vote.
She told the Mirror she brought a photograph of herself, rather than a photo ID, after she misunderstood the instructions.
She said: “I am nearly 90. And the officers that were on, they know me, but they weren’t allowed to let me vote. How stupid is that?”
Three different methods of asking voters to verify their identity were used in the pilot scheme.
Pendle and Woking asked voters to bring photographic ID.
Either a photo ID or a polling card were acceptable in Mid Sussex, Watford and North West Leicestershire.
And polling stations were able to accept either one piece of photo ID, or two pieces of non-photo ID, in Broxtowe, Craven, Derby, North Kesteven and Braintree.
Full list – people turned away from voting in the May 2019 local elections
KEY: Council area – number of people turned away who didn’t then come back with ID (compared to the total number initially refused a ballot paper)
Braintree – 73 (203)
Broxtowe – 69 (231)
Craven – 49 (129)
Derby – 256 (514)
North Kesteven – 68 (145)
Mid Sussex – 8 (15)
NW Leicestershire – 61 (266)
Watford* – 33 (94)
Pendle – 101 (284)
Woking – 22 (87)
Source: Electoral Commission. Watford had a wide variation of possible figures so we chose the lower figure.
