With just over two months until voters go to the polls, Oldham’s Liberal Democrats have branded government plans to introduce photo ID checks at polling stations as “chaos”. New figures reveal that a shocking 1% of the near 2 million eligible voters without ID have applied for an acceptable form of photo identification.
Leader of Oldham Liberal Democrats councillor Howard Sykes MBE said, “The government have rushed these laws through with no time for councils to implement them. It’s very likely that the result will be people in Oldham are denied the right to vote because they don’t have ID or don’t know to bring it with them to the polling station.”
“It’s clear that we are heading towards chaos at polling stations in May. The government know this, yet they are still choosing to push ahead. This could mean thousands of people in Oldham are denied the right to vote.”
Nationally with just over two months to go before the local elections, figures show that only 505 people over 75 had applied and fewer than 6% of those applying were aged under 25.
Councillor Sykes said, “Liberal Democrats have been opposing the Voter ID regulations since they were first introduced into Parliament via the Elections Act. The Labour Party had the chance to block these new laws as they passed through the House of Lords, but they chose to stand by and let them pass.”
Liberal Democrats in Parliament are calling for the rollout of photo ID requirements to be halted and for the regulations to be immediately revoked.