Voter ID rules reportedly led to racial and disability discrimination in England

Rules introduced in this year’s local elections in England requiring voters to obtain a voter ID before being allowed to partake at the polling stations led to racial and disability discrimination, as concluded by a report written by the APPG on democracy and the constitution.

The rules were introduced to prevent potential election fraud, despite there only being three cases of an individual being charged for identity fraud at polling stations in the past seven years.

The report – as conveyed by The Guardian – states that “the current voter-ID system is, as it stands, a ‘poisoned cure’ in that it disenfranchises more electors than it protects.”, going on to find that “polling clerks are more likely to fail to compare a photo ID to the person presenting that document if the person is of a different ethnicity”.

With regard to disability discrimination, the report outlines the case of Andrea Barratt – an immunocompromised woman who was turned away from entering a polling booth following her refusal to take off her mask for an identity check. In addition, the report says: “A disproportionate number of electors who were not permitted to vote appeared to be non-white passing. By contrast, all of those who were observed being permitted to vote without presenting ID were white-passing.”

Whilst there was reportedly no evidence that this will have changed the outcome of the elections in May, the all-party parliamentary group does warn that if maintained at a general election, the result of up to sixteen constituencies could be swung.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/11/voter-id-in-england-led-to-racial-and-disability-discrimination-report-finds