Voters will have to produce photo ID before they will be allowed to vote in May’s local elections, but a loophole means that people who vote by post will not be subject to ID checks. Liberal Democrat councillors in Oldham say the change will lead to “chaos” at polling stations.
Liberal Democrat Leader councillor Howard Sykes MBE said, “The government is making it harder to vote by forcing people to bring photo ID with them to the polling station – something thousands of people in Oldham will not have.”
“It couldn’t be clearer that there isn’t the time to implement this before May and most importantly, there isn’t the time to tell people about it. Regrettably, this will probably lead to voters being denied their right to vote and being turned away. The government know this, yet they are pushing ahead anyway,” he added.
The Local Government Association has also raised serious concerns about the governments roll-out of voter ID. They say that councils will need six months to implement proposals when, in reality, the government is barely giving them four.
However, the government has proposed no changes to the rules for those voting by post, meaning that only people who turn up to vote in person will be required to prove their identity.
Councillor Sykes said, “It’s a completely bizarre loophole. The plans are unfair, badly thought out and they are going to lead to chaos on polling day. This change is trying to solve a problem that does not exist, what it really is about is voter suppression. Now reforming the rules for postal votes, where there are well documented issues, would be welcome but has been ducked!”
A Liberal Democrat attempt to delay the introduction of voter ID was defeated in the House of Lords in December (13/12) after the Labour Party failed to support the motion, choosing instead to welcome the Conservative governments voter ID proposals.