"In a democracy, the most fundamental of all rights is the right to vote. It is the foundation on which all our liberties depend. Yet for millions of people, compulsory voter ID will make that harder"
My take on Voter ID for @prospect_uk [extracts follow] prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/voter…
My take on Voter ID for @prospect_uk [extracts follow] prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/voter…
More than 3 million UK voters have no official photographic ID. Nearly 11 million have neither a passport nor a driver's licence. Those voters now face new barriers to the ballot box, to tackle a problem for which there is precious little evidence. 
In-person voter fraud is not just rare: it would be almost impossible to organise on a large scale. And we would know it was happening, from the number of voters arriving at the polling station to find that their vote had already been cast.
There will, of course, be special procedures for voters with no ID. But a barrier will have been erected for one group of voters that does not exist for others. That breaches a core democratic principle: the equality of access to the ballot box.
Digital disinformation, fake news and violations of campaign finance rules are corrupting our democracy far more effectively than any voter who has lost their passport. Yet these are crimes of the powerful, not the powerless.
Voter ID takes a hammer to the votes of millions of people who have committed no crime, to smash an imaginary nut. In a democracy, it is for the voters to decide who governs; it is not for govt to decides who votes. This legislation must be resisted.[ENDS] prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/voter…
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