Opinion: Why voter ID ceases to defer voters and tackle a 'problem' that does not exist

Voters must now show photo ID at polling stations across England to be allowed to vote, following the passing of the UK Government’s Elections Act.

However, there are fears this could cost the taxpayer more than £40 million over the next decade.

And research by the Electoral Commission shows more than three million people in the UK have no form of photo ID, meaning millions of votes may be impacted by these changes.

With an underfunded NHS and a wave of national key sector workers demanding a pay rise to match the rate of inflation amid the rising cost of living, surely our money would be better spent there, instead of tackling a ‘problem’ that does not seem to exist?

It feels like voter fraud is being weaponised as a threat to democracy when in reality, figures show that in 2019 there was just one conviction and one police caution for impersonating another voter.

From 2010-2016, when the country faced two general elections and an EU referendum – with more than 80 million votes cast – there were just more than 140 allegations of voter fraud, and only seven people were convicted.

According to figures unveiled by Voice4Change England, a national charity for social inclusion, the majority of the cases – 49 per cent of all reported cases in 2017 and 48 per cent in 2018 – concerned campaign offences.

This means that a party did not include details about the publisher in its election material and in 2017, just one person was convicted of the crime of impersonation at the polling station.

In 2018, there were no convictions or cautions for impersonation, one person was convicted and two accepted a caution for electoral offences other than impersonation.

Compared with the millions affected by not having photo identification, ‘voter fraud’ is a non-issue.

Demanding voter ID serves to do more harm than good and may be a tactic to disenfranchise people from voting, potentially suppressing the votes of millions of people in the process.

This could potentially ostracise those without photo ID, including voters under 25, pensioners, those with disabilities, people facing homelessness, ethnic minorities, and working class communities.