Voter Fraud?

Sonic67

You have to prove who you are to get a parcel.

Tories in new race row over identity checks for elections

Where's the problem?

At present the system was trialled in places like, Gosport, Swindon, Watford and Woking. Wouldn't Tower Hamlets have been more interesting?

Labour, has heavily backed postal voting:

Judge slates 'banana republic' postal voting system

He found six Labour councillors in Birmingham guilty of carrying out "massive, systematic and organised" postal voting fraud to win two wards during last June's elections for the city council. Declaring the results void, he barred the men from standing again in a byelection expected on May 12.

Postal voting fraud is 'easy', electoral commissioner says

In his judgment against the Tower Hamlets mayor, Richard Mawrey raised concerns that the fraud is increasingly commonplace

Postal voting fraud has become “easy” because of “extremely lax rules”, the electoral commissioner has said amid concerns that the practice is widespread.

“The ease of postal vote fraud and the difficulty of policing it led to such a great upsurge in personation that, in the Birmingham case, the number of false votes was virtually half of all votes recorded as having been cast for the winning candidates.”

Police investigate new fraud claims over Tower Hamlets poll

Tower Hamlets election: Anti-fraud police trained up - Police get anti-fraud election training

Met Police 'failed' in Tower Hamlets election fraud probe - Police 'failed' in election fraud probe

Note, showing photo ID happens in NI. Brought in due to voter fraud from Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein objected as oddly, Catholics were less likely to have photo ID.

Sinn Fein is accused of massive vote fraud

Voting by proxy in Foyle up to 17 times UK level - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

Cliff

In Bromley, we were one of the trial areas where you would asked for ID. We had been informed before, so were aware that some kind of ID was necessary. I had my driving license, so it was simple.
@tapzilla2k said: ↑

This is about disenfranchising people who can't afford the required ID, not about preventing voter fraud.
Anyone who is legal and on the voters register will have ID of some sort. It doesn't cost anything. So I am not sure where where you read that, as it sounds like a labour buzz line, unless of course you give it 5 seconds thought and realize its nonsense. We all have one form of ID that can be used.
Anyway.. to continue my story....
I used to spend most of my time abroad so had registered for a postal vote. This was noted at the polling station and I was not allowed to vote there and then. I had to go back home and dig out the postal vote form, which I could use instead.

So checks are in place now.

Sonic67

Labour.

                                                                               

Labour Party activists tell university students to vote TWICE – MBGA News

Man pleads guilty to voting for Labour twice in the general election

                                                                       

weaviemx5

Of course, if we did bring in the need for voter ID for elections, that would put us on a par with undemocratic right wing hellholes like.... Canada.

Elections Canada Online |  ID to Vote

Not to mention as already pointed out, this was brought in for elections in Northern Ireland and doesn't seem to have disenfranchised voters there.

weaviemx5

That's a pretty misleading headline, considering the article itself states (below the image and after the first line);

"Yesterday a group of Labour activists set up a stall outside Plymouth University with a poster telling students to register to vote twice in the upcoming local elections – once in their home constituency and again from their university residence.

Currently, it is legal to vote more than once in local elections, but not in general elections. "

tapzilla2k

Forgot to say, this story is a bit of a non-event too.  Man votes twice (was registered twice at same address with slightly different name, bragged about it on twitter, was arrested/charged and given a fine.  Surely that shows that he didn't get away with voter fraud?

Sonic67

Not everyone will have acceptable forms of ID or be able to afford them. How would you remedy it for those who don't have a bank account ? As a bank card and/or statement is another form of ID that is acceptable under the government scheme. Not everyone will have utility bills either.
The point I'm getting at, is that to have free and fair elections it should not cost the voters a penny to vote. A National ID card issued to everyone of voting age is the most equitable solution if fraud is such a massive problem. But tbh the system we have now is vastly superior to the age of the rotten boroughs and the varying conditions attached to be able to vote.

If you disenfranchise people, then you only store up civil unrest. So the current Tory scheme is frankly daft based around very few cases of voter fraud and tbh I'd only take it seriously if there were moves to bring in National ID card.


Those kinds of checks have nearly always been there. If anything needs reform it's not voter ID checks, it's the postal ballot system itself.

Sonic67

Which also means they won't get benefits. You need to prove who you are to get them.


                                                                               

Kate Hoey on Twitter

So does voter fraud.

Sonic67

Yep, if you tell people you committed a crime you get caught. Guess we should rely on that.

Sonic67

Usual moans about the toorreess, this is from the electoral commission.

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/164609/Electoral-fraud-review-final-report.pdf

"4.4 This chapter outlines why we are recommending that voters should be required to provide some form of identification when they cast their vote in person at a polling station in Great Britain.

4.8 The lack of a mechanism for verifying voter identities in polling stations and the risk of personation was cited as the main vulnerability of polling station voting by the members of the public we surveyed and by respondents to our evidence and issues paper.

4.9 Changes to improve the security of the postal voting process have been introduced since 2007, with voters using this method being required to provide a signature and date of birth when applying for and completing their postal ballot, which are then subject to verification (see paragraph 5.5 of this report). The Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 provided for the introduction of IER in Great Britain, which is scheduled to be implemented from June 2014. This will require a person’s details (date of birth and National Insurance number) to be verified against Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) records before they can be added to the register, which will make it much harder to register fictitious electors, whether for the purpose of committing electoral or other fraud.

4.10 As different parts of the electoral process are tightened up (for example, postal voting), those intent on committing fraud may shift their focus to the remaining weaknesses of the system, with polling station voting becoming more vulnerable to electoral fraud in the future.

4.26 The list includes an Electoral Identity Card, which an elector can apply for free of charge from their local Area Electoral Office. While the Electoral Identity Card is intended only for voter identification purposes, the card “has 25 come to be widely accepted as proof of identity for many purposes including access to financial services, travel and entry to licensed premises”.11 Electoral Identity Cards with a Braille overlay are available for blind or partially sighted electors.

Our conclusion

4.29 Polling station voting in Great Britain remains vulnerable to personation fraud because there are currently few checks available to prevent someone claiming to be an elector and voting in their name. This part of the system could become more vulnerable to fraud as other processes (including electoral registration and postal or proxy voting) become more secure. We have therefore concluded that there should be a requirement for electors across Great Britain to present an acceptable form of identification prior to voting at the polling station."

Etc.

I am assuming we consider the electoral commission independent?

"We are an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. We regulate party and election finance and set standards for well-run elections. We work to support a healthy democracy, where elections and referendums are based on our principles of trust, participation, and no undue influence."