Young being deliberately cut out of local elections through voter ID rules: Yorkshire Post Letters

The widespread belief that “they’re all the same,” and so nothing will change, discourages people from voting.

Not voting undermines democracy by producing results which are not inclusive or representative of the country as a whole.

The most shocking aspect of the forthcoming local elections, however, is the government’s deliberate attempt to restrict certain people from voting by insisting on photographic identity documents at polling stations.

The government bulldozed this photo ID requirement through parliament at great speed against all the evidence, and even against the wishes of some of its own MPs.

David Davis, for example, told Sky News the other week that voter ID is “preventing something that doesn't happen”.

He added: "This is an answer to a problem that's not there. Are we actually going to discriminate against the old and the poor in our election system?"

The requirement for voter ID cannot be justified by the evidence.

In 2019 we had local elections in May, European elections in June, and a general election in December.

In a population of some 65 million, there were only two cases of in-person fraud.

Taxpayers’ money has once again been wasted.

Responsibility - and blame - for implementing this new system has been handed to councils who may well struggle to cope because of government cuts.

But even if there had been more evidence of fraud, the government has given the game away by accepting only certain kinds of voter ID.

An older person’s bus pass is acceptable proof, but a student union card or a younger person’s bus pass is not. Similar rules throughout the country make one aim very clear - young people are dangerous because theirs may be a protest vote.

The damage goes much further than the young, and is essentially means-based.

A passport is permissible evidence, but that excludes those unable to afford a passport or never need to go abroad.

A driving licence is permissible, but that again excludes very many: driving lessons are exorbitant these days, many cannot afford to buy or run a car, many are not allowed to drive for good medical or other reasons. It’s the poor of all ages as well as the young who are more likely to be excluded from voting.

The House of Lords proposed many acceptable forms of ID which could only be obtained by proving who you were. The government rejected them all in favour of shoring up its traditional vote.

It is worrying that council officers in the polling stations may suffer abuse when voters learn they are excluded, and throughout the country the police are on alert because of these unnecessary, expensive new rules.

I am lucky to have the required documents, but as a senior citizen it grieves me that once again our young people and the poor of all ages are being deliberately discouraged from taking part in the democratic process.