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More than 700 voters were denied a vote for not having ID in May’s local elections, damning official figures reveal today.
The huge tide of people denied a vote, including an 87-year-old woman who’d voted all her life, happened despite 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 shocking figures prove new requirements to show ID are a “sledgehammer to crack a nut”.
Labour’s Shadow Minister for voter engagement Cat Smith said: “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.
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.
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.”
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.
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