Next UK election is set to be most unequal for over 60 years, finds IPPR | Hacker News Reader

Next UK election is set to be most unequal for over 60 years, finds IPPR

ippr.org

13 pointsrobtherobber12 comments

This is not surprising. After Blair/Blunket failed to get the ID card introduced in the late noughties, the voter registration procedure started to require one's National Insurance number (never intended for this purpose), all very handy for a de facto national database. I know quite a few people who stopped registering to vote then. Now the Tories have introduced an ID requirement (passport or similar) in the polling stations in addition to the voting card sent to your address. Obviously intended to dissuade the poor and marginal, but rather backfired in also disproportionately discouraging the old, their natural electoral base.

It's perfectly reasonable to ask for proof of identity when casting a ballot.

The specificity is that the UK hasn't got ID cards and some have complained that not everyone has a driving licence or passport, which are not free. Hence why they have created free voter IDs so that no-one is excluded, and of course it is in any case possible to vote by post.

Why is it reasonable? It seems to me that there is a cost (disenfranchising some people) and no clear benefit.

There is no cost, as explained.

The benefit is obvious... to ensure the person casting a ballot is really who they claim to be. It's odd that people are fine providing ID for many things but that voting should somehow be exempt.

There is no cost, as explained

The linked article reports an increase in differential engagement. Do you deny that, or have some other explanation?

The article is about a gap growing since the 60s.

The first election to require voters to show an ID was the local election in England this year.

So whatever is the cause of the growing gap discussed in the article it is not voter IDs.

The US has the same problem. Some parties want voters to show ID, but also won’t allow a national ID card. So it’s up to individual states to determine their own requirement for ID, and parties have great incentive to mess with that process in one way or another to favor their voters. And vote by post is also a very contentious issue.

> It's perfectly reasonable to ask for proof of identity when casting a ballot.

If it discourages or prevents people from voting, it has an impact on the outcome. Surely any new requirements should come in to solve an actual problem. Voter fraud is significantly NOT a problem in UK elections.

But then, disenfranchising the wrong voters is the whole point. Same reason elections are held on a work day and you can only vote in a single location unless you organise a postal ballot in advance. Retirees and the idle wealthy don't have a problem with these barriers.

As an Australian used to compulsory voting held on a Saturday where you can vote at any ballot location in the country, I found the way voting is run in the UK baffling. (Also, the fact I could vote!)

What I find misleading is the pronounced effect it is going to have on the elections although we know that there are far fewer wealthy people compared to poorer ones, there are no numbers to suggest how it will change anything as well. It should include that the trend for the people to become more conservative with age has also changed in the recent years.

The gist I get here is that people in the UK got poorer over time.

There are several perplexing aspects of UK elections:

* They allow me to vote (possibly due to colonial Commonwealth guilt). * You cast a vote using a pencil. How is there no voting fraud? * They elect only one person per district. In areas where there is a 50-50 split in the voter base, half the population is not represented.

I am from Eastern Europe. Everyone is given Citizen ID card when reaches 15 years old, that is used for identification during voting. It seems like a completely mindboggling concept for UK and USA for that matter.

In California you don't need an ID to vote. If you aren't registered you can still fill out provisional ballot at a polling place.

The problem in the US is each state is basically it's own country. And states are the ones that record birth certificates and issue ID cards. So the Feds rely on the states for that. Are you a native citizen? State of Georgia says yes.

It generally works on the idea of good faith. So where that applies it's fine. Where that doesn't there are problems. Like all the former states of the Confederacy.

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