Photo ID now a requirement to vote in the UK

[moochedit]

Is it a bit of A4 paper or a proper plastic card? if it's the second I might get one myself for the LOL's

I saw a photo of someone holding one up and was a4 paper.

Edit:

Photo ID requirement could ‘exclude voters’

LOCAL elections on May 4 will be the first UK polls in which voters will need to show photo identification, but this requirement could end up excluding Photo ID requirement could ‘exclude voters’

www.timeslocalnews.co.uk

 

[MickiQ]

I saw a photo of someone holding one up and was a4 paper.

Edit:

Photo ID requirement could ‘exclude voters’

LOCAL elections on May 4 will be the first UK polls in which voters will need to show photo identification, but this requirement could end up excluding Photo ID requirement could ‘exclude voters’

www.timeslocalnews.co.uk

That's pretty crappy. All members of the Q household have at least passports and driving licences so none of us need them but based on our experience, the odds of a piece of A4 being lost are far greater than that of a plastic card and these things are supposed to last for years.
Youngest Q though she has a passport and a driving licence has expressed her annoyance that she can't use her student railcard.

 

[moochedit]

That's pretty crappy. All members of the Q household have at least passports and driving licences so none of us need them but based on our experience, the odds of a piece of A4 being lost are far greater than that of a plastic card and these things are supposed to last for years.
Youngest Q though she has a passport and a driving licence has expressed her annoyance that she can't use her student railcard.

More easily damaged as well.

NI posters can confirm this but I think in northern ireland they have had a plastic voters id card for years (they have had photo id requirement for years).

I suspect this is just cost cutting. No idea if it has any security features like water marks. Does look like could be easily forged.

 

[Dystopiary]

You want to restrict the electoral franchise to people who can make it to a polling station? Sounds like a load of "authoratron" bullshit to me...

Sorry people with extremely limited mobility, the hospitalised, those who work hours outside of polling station opening times. Staker boy doesn't think you have the right to vote because he can't see your face.

Like fucking clockwork. Time and again conspiracy-minded "freedom" lovers show their contempt for disabled people, it's all about their own freedom, they don't give a shit about people whose freedom is genuinely restricted.

 

[NoXion]

Like fucking clockwork. Time and again conspiracy-minded "freedom" lovers show their contempt for disabled people, it's all about their own freedom, they don't give a shit about people whose freedom is genuinely restricted.

I'd say in this case it's pure authoritarianism, since getting rid of postal votes would do nothing to increase his own freedom. A slip of the mask.

 

[brogdale]

I saw a photo of someone holding one up and was a4 paper.

Edit:

Photo ID requirement could ‘exclude voters’

LOCAL elections on May 4 will be the first UK polls in which voters will need to show photo identification, but this requirement could end up excluding Photo ID requirement could ‘exclude voters’

www.timeslocalnews.co.uk

Never gonna last from one election to the next

 

[brogdale]

I don't recall having to submit any documentation when applying online and I wouldn't hjave been able to.

But offline you will need all that. My local library had a bunch of materials (forms, envelopes etc) to facilitate the process. They did their best with what's been imposed on them. I don't think the uptake was ideal. There's a poster in the local noticeboard notifying people about these changes, but the government has hardly been proactive in encouraging up take.

It stinks

Yes, presumably you knew your NI number etc.
This voter suppression apparatus is not there to dissuade organised, middle class folks with ordered lives.

 

[moochedit]

Never gonna last from one election to the next

I suspect it's not intended to

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Had my local election poll card and have decided to apply for a postal vote,so called into a whats called a local hub and asked for an application form,was told I had to go online to do this,so I did that and ended up on the conservative website,which did not help at all,everything is turning crap.

don't know what this local hub thing is (or where you are) but that sounds a bit crap.

the poll card i got says you can apply for a postal / proxy vote, but doesn't say where / how, although it has a phone number and web link.

it does say that deadline for requesting a postal vote is 18 april, so you don't have that much time.

suggest you go to your council's website (if you're somewhere there's county and district councils, then it's the district or borough or whatever - the one that sends the council tax bills) and there's bound to be a page for it somewhere - possibly under a heading like 'your council' or 'council and democracy' or something.

alternatively, i've just tried my local council's and it leads to a national government website with a form for applying for postal vote

here

although you need to print it out, fill it in, then get it back to your local council.

if printing isn't practical, then you'll need to phone up your local council to ask for the form (assuming that getting one from local council office or whatever isn't possible.)

if this local hub thing is council, and they are effectively disenfranchising anyone without web access, then that wants a fuss making about it.

 

[campanula]

So I applied for a senior railcard, not having any photo-ID...but I find I have to have photo-ID in order to apply for a railcard. This really is shit.

Personally, I wasn't going to vote anyway because I remain unconvinced that parliamentary democracy (ho fucking ho) is effective, because I believe any change is going to come from bottom-up activism and revolutionary action and because the options are all equally shit. My local council is corrupt and dishonest, with all the instincts of authoritarian Tory rule (despite being Labour controlled). However, I did want the opportunity to register my utter disgust on a ballot sheet.

 

[High Voltage]

Is it a bit of A4 paper or a proper plastic card? if it's the second I might get one myself for the LOL's

I’ll let you know when it turns up

 

[poppy60]

don't know what this local hub thing is (or where you are) but that sounds a bit crap.

the poll card i got says you can apply for a postal / proxy vote, but doesn't say where / how, although it has a phone number and web link.

it does say that deadline for requesting a postal vote is 18 april, so you don't have that much time.

suggest you go to your council's website (if you're somewhere there's county and district councils, then it's the district or borough or whatever - the one that sends the council tax bills) and there's bound to be a page for it somewhere - possibly under a heading like 'your council' or 'council and democracy' or something.

alternatively, i've just tried my local council's and it leads to a national government website with a form for applying for postal vote

here

although you need to print it out, fill it in, then get it back to your local council.

if printing isn't practical, then you'll need to phone up your local council to ask for the form (assuming that getting one from local council office or whatever isn't possible.)

if this local hub thing is council, and they are effectively disenfranchising anyone without web access, then that wants a fuss making about it.

I have just sorted it all out,by calling into my local Lib/Dem shop on the high street,Got a couple of application forms,they were only to happy to help.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Mulling this over, is it fact the first step to compulsory ID cards?

In the great scheme of things, ID cards are used in other countries, and even in France, you should have it on you, and if stopped and asked for it, you either have to produce it on the spot, or within four hours at a police station.

I'm against compulsory ID cards on principle, although I carried one on a mandatory basis for fourteen years. I think we are surveilled too much as it stands. I was horrified when on one of those police interceptor programs, it was casually mentioned that there are 7000 cameras on Britain's roads.

Step one, voting document. Step two, the paper is a bit flimsy, we will make it a card. Step three, now you have the card, why don't we use it for... Step four, now you have a card that lets you do x, maybe you should have it with you. Step five, too many of you are forgetting your card, so in your best interests (of course) we will make it compulsory, that way you will be less likely to forget it. Step six, forgotten your card? here is a £50.00 FPN to remind you the next time.

 

[MickiQ]

Brown tried to introduce a National Identity card in 2006, Cameron killed it off in 2011.

 

[brogdale]

Mulling this over, is it fact the first step to compulsory ID cards?

In the great scheme of things, ID cards are used in other countries, and even in France, you should have it on you, and if stopped and asked for it, you either have to produce it on the spot, or within four hours at a police station.

I'm against compulsory ID cards on principle, although I carried one on a mandatory basis for fourteen years. I think we are surveilled too much as it stands. I was horrified when on one of those police interceptor programs, it was casually mentioned that there are 7000 cameras on Britain's roads.

Step one, voting document. Step two, the paper is a bit flimsy, we will make it a card. Step three, now you have the card, why don't we use it for... Step four, now you have a card that lets you do x, maybe you should have it with you. Step five, too many of you are forgetting your card, so in your best interests (of course) we will make it compulsory, that way you will be less likely to forget it. Step six, forgotten your card? here is a £50.00 FPN to remind you the next time.

There's an anarchist in there trying to get out!

 

[Puddy_Tat]

“If I am ever asked,” Boris Johnson once wrote of ID cards, “on the streets of London, or in any other venue, public or private, to produce my ID card as evidence that I am who I say I am, when I have done nothing wrong and am simply ambling along and breathing God’s fresh air like any other freeborn Englishman, then I will take that card out of my wallet and physically eat it in the presence of whatever emanation of the state has demanded I produce it.”

(source)

 

[moochedit]

I suspect it's paper because it's free and they don't want to spend money on plastic cards and want to discourage people who already have passports or driving licences applying for it.

 

[andysays]

“If I am ever asked,” Boris Johnson once wrote of ID cards, “on the streets of London, or in any other venue, public or private, to produce my ID card as evidence that I am who I say I am, when I have done nothing wrong and am simply ambling along and breathing God’s fresh air like any other freeborn Englishman, then I will take that card out of my wallet and physically eat it in the presence of whatever emanation of the state has demanded I produce it.”

(source)

 

[andysays]

Brown tried to introduce a National Identity card in 2006, Cameron killed it off in 2011.

I don't think Voter ID will inevitably lead to compulsory National ID cards, but Cameron deciding not to go ahead in 2011 doesn't prevent any subsequent PM from resurrecting the idea.

 

[two sheds]

I don't think Voter ID will inevitably lead to compulsory National ID cards, but Cameron deciding not to go ahead in 2011 doesn't prevent any subsequent PM from resurrecting the idea.

Indeed, the idea of national ID cards is that everyone has one - the idea of voter ID is that as many non-tory voters as possible won't have one.

 

[MrSki]

I just applied for my voter ID certificate. Takes less than 5 minutes & all you need is name, address & NI number along with a recent passport style digital photo.

Get it by 25th April deadline for the local elections in May from here.

An expired passport can be used for ID as long as the photo still looks like you. Mine was issued last century so the photo is a bit old & went for the above as it is free & will be useful to have valid photo ID which has been a pain in the arse since 2006 for me.

Got it in the post today. Pretty good service as twas only Sunday I applied. I now have photo ID for free!!!

 

[MrSki]

It is a bit of light green watermarked A4 paper with photo & name on it. No DOB or address just when it was issued & a recommended renewal date.

 

[gentlegreen]

I've said it before, but I was asked for a DL or passport to move GP surgeries to a more convenient one I'd lived half a mile from for 35 years so put it off until I'd coincidentally organised my first adult passport with a view to escaping the UK.
I never did investigate what alternatives there might have been...

 

[StakerOne]

You still here?

You think they're going to pull postal voting and make people vote down the polling station?

Please. Pack it in. That's bullshit, utter utter bullshit and you know it.

They should expand postal voting so that young people aren't disenfranchised by not having the 'right' proof.

Yep they should ... but they won't.

Both the tories and labour have spent a lot of time and money into postal vote harvesting.

Why level the playing field to smaller parties? Of course they won't.

Blockchain voting should be brought in, with zero-knowledge proofs, proving the voter is legite. Voters would need to go to the town hall to get their reusable digital polling card.

When their vote goes onto the blockchain, we all KNOW it's a legite vote with zero chance of fraud but we don't know who each voter is on the actual voting section of the blockchain. Seperately, each voter on the register would be marked off.

More secure, more private, no one is disenfranchised and there's zero chance of fraud.

With postal votes, there's not only fraud to contend with, but also overbearing members of the same household forcing others to vote the same way.

That's very bad for women and some younger folk.

"You're voting for XXXXXX if you want to stay under this roof!"

Postal voting is shite and needs to be knocked on the head.

 

[StakerOne]

I would have thought you'd prefer some kind of block chain voting?

I do. But postal votes are the biggest pile of shite ever that anything else would be great.

 

[StakerOne]

You want to restrict the electoral franchise to people who can make it to a polling station? Sounds like a load of "authoratron" bullshit to me...

Sorry people with extremely limited mobility, the hospitalised, those who work hours outside of polling station opening times. Staker boy doesn't think you have the right to vote because he can't see your face.

Yet you want postal votes for ALL because you love the massive fraud that comes with it.

Everything about you is fraudulent.

 

[StakerOne]

For the first time in my adult life I'm set to not vote in a GE. It's well-timed for me that this policy has been brought in at just the same moment as there's nobody I can even hold my nose and vote for anyway. I search my feelings, and underneath the dismay I find I simply don't give a fuck any more. That's the most depressing part of all.

And lol @ our resident anti-authoritarian conspiraloon ^^ who argues constantly elsewhere for 'human freedom' deferring to authority and telling us all to prove who we are in order to vote. You couldn't make it up.

That's better than the current status quo.

What good are postal votes, if many who receive them are leaned on by someone else in the household to vote a certain way?

I believe in freedom, but people have to be protected, their vote is precious.

I've personally witnessed cases of over-bearing older people telling younger people who they can and can't vote for when they get their postal votes.

Even just restricting postal votes to those registered as disabled or in hospital would be a game changer, but I'm not even happy with that.

France makes sure everyone votes in person. It's one of the few things they get right.

 

[NoXion]

Yet you want postal votes for ALL because you love the massive fraud that comes with it.

Everything about you is fraudulent.

There is no "massive amount of fraud" with postal voting in the UK. You just made that shit up.

 

[mojo pixy]

That's better than the current status quo.

What good are postal votes, if many who receive them are leaned on by someone else in the household to vote a certain way?

I believe in freedom, but people have to be protected, their vote is precious.

I've personally witnessed cases of over-bearing older people telling younger people who they can and can't vote for when they get their postal votes.

Even just restricting postal votes to those registered as disabled or in hospital would be a game changer, but I'm not even happy with that.

France makes sure everyone votes in person. It's one of the few things they get right.

So, outside authority is bad unless you say so, and the individual is ultimately sovereign until they do something you disapprove of, then fuck 'em. Got it

 

[StakerOne]

There is no "massive amount of fraud" with postal voting in the UK. You just made that shit up.

There are NO legitimate postal votes because you can't prove any of them are legitmate.

When you say they are legit. You are just making shit up.