National ID cards anyone? Pretty much every other country has them for each and every citizen. And mostly it is mandatory to carry them with you at all times.
Don’t seem to stop folks running riot!!
The government decided to go with the strictest ID rules every time
Coverage we’ve won
Director of Research and Policy Dr Jess Garland has been busy speaking to journalists from across the UK on how voter Id will impact their local area. Jess appeared on ITV Anglia, Central, Meridian, Tyne Tees, Westcountry and Yorkshire on the risks of voter ID.
The Electoral Reform Society team
Here’s how SNP leadership elections work
The deadline for contenders to put themselves forward for the next SNP leadership passed at midday on the 24th February, so it is now confirmed there are three potential future leaders.
Why will the government’s voter ID scheme cost us up to £180,000,000 a decade?
Making it harder for people to vote is an expensive business.
What is a Citizens’ Assembly?
Citizens’ Assemblies are often in the news, from the assemblies that led to the referendums on equal marriage and abortion in Ireland, to the Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland and local council climate assemblies.
Coverage we’ve won
The ERS’ Dr Jess Garland spoke to Byline Times about the low awareness of the new voter ID rules and the New Statesman about the strictness of the new rules. ERS Scotland’s Willie Sullivan told the Mirror that it was deeply concerning that so many people still lack the ID they will need.
Over in Wales, Jess Blair represented ERS Cymru on BBC Politics Wales.
Our issues in the news
- Guardian - Low uptake for free UK voter ID scheme among elderly and young people
- New Statesman - People without valid ID probably wouldn’t vote anyway, declares Tory minister
- Financial Times - Conservatives and the sorry state of public patronage
- New Statesman - Will voter ID laws hurt the Tories more than Labour?
Safe Seat of the Week
This week Damien Green failed to win selection for newly-created seat of Weald of Kent, the replacement for his old seat of Ashford. Here is how Ashford voted in 2019
Ashford
67.1% Turnout
576th Smallest Margin of Victory
513th Smallest Share of the Vote Needed to Win
Voter ID, tosh, no more comment.
What about making voting compulsory, as they do in some countries. Fine people who do not vote. That would solve the low turn out issues.
In the past, I have never been in favour of compulsory voting -
if someone can’t be bothered to turn out to vote voluntarily, are they going to be bothered to check out all the candidates to choose who would best represent them? - or will they just tick any box at random because they feel aggrieved at being forced into doing something they don’t want to do?
Or, if they have deliberately chosen not to vote for a specific reason, such as lack of a decent candidate, should they be forced to turn up at the polling station just to put a spoiled ballot paper in the box.
I would prefer to encourage people to want to vote by having a more democratic system of proportional representation - that may encourage people to think their vote may count.
The current system in U.K. where we have a two party monopoly and “safe seats” which are often “reserved” for the “favoured” politicians within the party, does not encourage me to think my vote counts.
I still vote at every election because I feel a sense of duty but every time I vote, I know it will be a wasted vote because the same party have had a majority in this constituency for the last 100 years.
On the other side of the coin, I have spoken with people from Australia in recent months and their view of Compulsory Voting made me think of it a bit differently - the law requires you to turn up at the polling station for your ballot paper or send in your postal ballot paper.
However, they said that nobody is forced to Vote if they don’t want to - your actual vote is anonymous, so you don’t have to vote for any of the candidates and you can put anything you like on your ballot paper - the people I talked to saw their system as more democratic because it made sure that everyone, including people in minority or disadvantaged groups, got to the ballot box and had the opportunity to vote and have a say if they wanted to.
They said it wasn’t really “compulsory voting” but “compulsory access to the voting system”
I think it would be a struggle to get a similar system going in U.K. - Brits have a tendency to dig in their heels if they think they’re being “told what to do” - even people who normally vote would probably join a “no voting” protest against a compulsory system - I’m amazed the Govt has the got the legislation through for Voting ID, to be honest.
I must admit, our current system is a bit lax - I just turn up at the voting station and give my name and address and they give me my ballot paper - they don’t ask for any ID or even ask to see my voting registration card.
I daresay if I had a friend, relative or neighbour and I knew they were registered to vote but were not going to use their vote, I could just turn up at their polling station and be given their ballot paper and nobody would know I’d used their vote, in addition to my own.
Good insights. I would welcome mandatory voting - especially if voter ID requirements are imposed. It seems that making a decision on who to support and casting a vote is very much a civic duty. Even in a flawed system (and the UK system is so outdated that its close to being full of rotten boroughs). Not voting is not actively criticizing the system, its ducking out of a simple obligation from being a recipient / beneficiary / victim of how the country is run.
1 Like
People would soon be on Twitter or similar agreeing to vote for some right whacky party.
With high levels of corruption, voting seems a waste of time.
I’m not sure that I follow your logic of not voting. I understand the frustration of voting for a person and a party only to find out that they were involved in some form of corruption. But would it not make it worse if fewer and fewer people were voting? Is there even a correlation between corruption and voting levels (apart the obvious of presidents who stop all voting and always seem to be very corrupt)? I’d have thought corruption should stimulate more people to vote - and vote out the corrupt parties.
False syllogism, I don’t believe in the political matrix of UK system. Winning an election is just a licence to make a new mess under the guise of cleaning up an old mess that career politicians made before the last election.
The voting paper does not have an option for NOTA.
1 Like
I hope you meant that you do not approve of the political structures in the UK, rather than (like perhaps Santa Claus) do not believe in it. I do not approve of the first past the post, conflict driven, unelected upper house, two party system (if that’s what you meant). But the only place to change this is parliament. So if you think it’s unsuitable, you need to vote for a party / leader who will change the system. Not voting makes no difference to anything. None of the above is not voting. So the logic of your stance is that you don’t like the set up but are not willing to see the set up change.
Elections don’t change a thing, and if they did, they would soon be illegal.
Photo from 2022.
Not in favour of a candidate but to keep another one out of power.
This is what happened in 2017, when turnout decreased in the second round and voters cast a record number of blank or spoiled ballots in protest at the choice of candidates.
Yes, its called tactical voting. And the two stage proportional voting used in France allows such clear and informed tactical voting. This ploy of accepting the least worse of two options is common in life. At its core it represents a compromise. Why does it disappoint you?
If more people were disappointed by the UK political set up, and these people voted, then tactical voting could make a huge impact. But apathy and entrenched support for one of the two parties keeps this from happening.
No amount of wielding of unchecked executive power and dismissal of vital select committee findings can wish away the progress that NOTA UK and other groups campaigning for electoral reform have made – so we crack on.
In the wake of Brexit, Covid and the very public implosions of both the Labour party and now the Tory party, the need for NOTA and further democratic reform of the UK political system has never been more urgent.
The fight for actual democracy continues… GET INVOLVED!
Our only hope.
Well corrected, thank you. I take it back about non-voting action not being effective.
You’re welcome.
sorry, but apt.
Hi there spitfire, a very good morning to you. 
