Compulsory voter ID is an attempt to rig our elections

Responding to the reports that the Government are set to announce it will be compulsory for voters to show identification at the next election, Liberal Democrat shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, Tom Brake said: "The move by the Government to make voter ID compulsory is a thinly-veiled attempt to rig the results of future elections. Boris Johnson is clearly taking a leaf out of Trump's playbook by using false claims about voter fraud to suppress turnout".

Ellen Nicholson, South West Wiltshire's parliamentary candidate said, 'we know from the pilot back in 2018, the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) produced a report looking at those trials and the policy generally and the findings suggested this was going to be an expensive distraction for democracy in the UK. In 2017 there was just one conviction for personation fraud. That's out of 45 million votes cast across the UK.

Watch the ERS statement here: https://youtu.be/tDMSAn5VOfY

Here in the UK, 3.5 million citizens do not have access to photo ID and 11 million do not have a passport or driving licence, that makes mandatory voter ID - with no free provision - a barrier to many people exercising their right to vote.

The ERS concluded that this policy is a sledgehammer to crack a nut and detailed concerns in full in the report 'A Sledgehammer to Crack a Nut' which is available on the Electoral Reform Society's website. Find out more at https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/l...

"The trial was deemed a waste of time and the public's money, and this roll-out will be no different. The Conservative Government have already showed disdain for our democracy and this move is simply further confirmation of that.

"Rather than electioneering by making it harder to vote, the Conservative Government should be focusing on ways to encourage democratic participation, such as through extending voting rights to 16 year olds."