Photo ID

[SueEllen]

Boris Johnson - I don't think he was supposed to be in the groups that he aimed to disenfranchise.

And some Tory MP we mustn't laugh at.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...lish-elections

Boris Johnson was turned away from his local polling station when trying to cast his vote in Thursday’s elections after forgetting to bring the required photo identity.

The former prime minister was initially told by polling station staff he would not be allowed to vote in the police and crime commissioner election in South Oxfordshire without proving his identity.

The misstep was embarrassing for Johnson because the requirement to bring photo ID is a stipulation of the Elections Act he introduced in 2022 while in Downing Street.

<Snip/>
A Tory MP was among those caught out by the voter ID requirement as polls opened for the local elections in England and Wales. The Ipswich MP, Tom Hunt, said his dyspraxia was the reason he had lost his documents.

Hunt sent a message to his local Conservative WhatsApp group stating: “Bit of drama. Turns out I have no appropriate ID to vote tomorrow. There is an emergency proxy option if you lose your ID … who would like the honours?”

But Hunt said it was inappropriate for Labour and social media users to mock him for misplacing his documents given his developmental coordination disorder.

“I don’t want to blame everything on my dyspraxia, but it’s a factor in my life I have to deal with,” he told the Evening Standard. “It’s all well and good people saying we need to have more neurodiverse members of parliament, but having a massive pile-on on them, I don’t think it’s going to encourage more people.”

[vetran]

GB news were suggesting Bozo may have done it to draw attention to himself.
Watch out Carrie he will be chopping you in if you don't adore him enough!

[SueEllen]

GB news were suggesting Bozo may have done it to draw attention to himself.

Sounds true.

Funnily enough the other MP voted for voter ID in parliament. He must have forgotten that he had a tendency to forget things when he voted for it rather than abstaining....

[ladymuck]

I don't really have an issue with needing ID to vote but it is laughable that people who put the law in place forget that it applies to them too.

Eventually the UK will realise that they're going to have to issue a free ID card because there's so much that is reliant on a verified form of identification with services becoming increasingly difficult to obtain by people who don't have a driving license or passport.

[SueEllen]

I don't really have an issue with needing ID to vote but it is laughable that people who put the law in place forget that it applies to them too.

Eventually the UK will realise that they're going to have to issue a free ID card because there's so much that is reliant on a verified form of identification with services becoming increasingly difficult to obtain by people who don't have a driving license or passport.

Ireland found an "interesting" way to do it. Their card isn't an ID card but if you don't have one getting healthcare and a few more things is extremely difficult

[xoggoth]

Expect we will all have to get microchipped soon. Might be quite handy, would not have to have a wallet full of admission cards, bus passes etc.

[mudskipper]

I was manning an election station. Only had one voter (older lady) turn up without id, but she did come back. Had a couple try their costco cards, but both had other valid id. They do issue voter authority certificates to those without id - only had one of those at our station. Most popular id was definitely the old people's bus pass, which reflects the typical demographic of the people who turned out to vote at our station!

[SueEllen]

I was manning an election station. Only had one voter (older lady) turn up without id, but she did come back. Had a couple try their costco cards, but both had other valid id. They do issue voter authority certificates to those without id - only had one of those at our station. Most popular id was definitely the old people's bus pass, which reflects the typical demographic of the people who turned out to vote at our station!

Seriously whose going to bother getting one of those?

Most people will do what they did in Liverpool and not vote.

[ladymuck]

Seriously whose going to bother getting one of those?

Most people will do what they did in Liverpool and not vote.

I would expect older people who see voting as important will get one, it's not onerous, but younger folk who see voting as a waste of time wouldn't?

Making some wild assumptions about voting behaviours, of course.

[SueEllen]

I would expect older people who see voting as important will get one, it's not onerous, but younger folk who see voting as a waste of time wouldn't?

Making some wild assumptions about voting behaviours, of course.

Half of the items on the list of acceptable ID is only available to older people.

That was the entire point of bringing it in.

Only when the local elections happened last year some more mature citizens were so pissed of with the idea of voter ID some didn't vote.