This Council notes:
Councils are responsible for organising all elections in England.
The government is currently proposing an Elections Bill to require people to show identification including a photograph in order to vote in a General Election.
Allegations of electoral registration or voter fraud are very rare in Mid Suffolk.
This Council believes:
Voting at elections is the cornerstone of democracy at both local and national level.
Participation in elections should be encouraged in all those who are qualified regardless of age, ethnicity or income.
Unnecessary barriers to voting are likely to reduce voter participation in elections, proper representation of all parts of the community and so legitimacy of those elected to office.
Voter ID is a solution without a problem and as such insinuates barriers to voting which should be of great concern to anyone who supports an open and effective democratic system of government.
This Council Resolves:
To oppose the introduction of photo ID as a requirement to vote at polling stations.
To request the Leader to write to the relevant minister indicating this opposition and the reasons why and requesting this measure should be excluded from the Elections Bill.
That should mandatory photo ID be passed into law, this council will investigate low-cost and no-cost options for residents, bearing in mind the barriers outlined and focus efforts to promote the ID to those who are most likely to need it.
Proposer: Cllr Mellen
Seconder: Cllr Scarff
Minutes:
Councillor Mellen introduced his Motion and informed Councillors that the Government’s Election Bill was passing through the parliamentary stages and was currently at the Committee stage. This Bill introduced a requirement to produce photo ID at a polling station in order to vote.
He continued by saying at first glance this may be seen to be a good thing as of course nobody wants to encourage voter fraud. However, when you start to look at the proposal in detail then the difficulties come to light.
Councillor Mellen added that this country has a long and noble tradition of resisting the compulsion to carrying an identity card around with us. Various governments have tried to bring them in for the general population and have failed. If there was a mandatory requirement for photo voter ID at an election what would we use?
The two main documents that have photo ID are passports and driving licences, the government has also indicated that other documents such as blue badges would also be accepted.
Councillor Mellon asked what about the rest of the population that don’t carry such things. Current thinking is that the local authority would issue some kind of legitimate voting pass or similar. Would this be for everyone or just the people who applied for it?
Councillor Mellen said that straight away this would become problematic. A cost would be involved, he questioned whether this would be borne by the voter or the Council. There would also be an enormous bureaucratic administrative burden that this authority would have to bear, and this Council is the authority that organises all of the elections.
Councillor Mellen stated that the people who don’t have a passport or a driving licence and don’t travel around could potentially be some of our most poorest residents and this would put another hurdle in the way of them exercising their democratic vote at a time when voting numbers were already low.
Councillor Mellen questioned what the scale of the issue was and had sought clarification on how much voter ID fraud there was. He had spoken with the Monitoring Officer who had confirmed that there had not been any cases of voter ID fraud in this district.
Councillor Mellen felt that this Council should express our opinion by writing to the Secretary of State and to this end he had made a small amendment that the letter should come from the Chairman of the Council rather than the Leader.
In summary Councillor Mellen said that voter ID was an answer in search of a question and was a very expensive and bureaucratic sledgehammer to crack a non- existent nut.
Councillor Mellen MOVED the Motion and urged all Councillors to support it and that this was communicated to the Secretary of State so that hopefully he would rethink the issue.
Councillor Scarff SECONDED the Motion including the amendment and informed Council that according to the House of Commons library, the most controversial measure in the Elections Bill 2021-2022 was voter ID. The government argued that this will improve the integrity of elections and prevent someone’s vote being stolen, otherwise known as personation.
Councillor Scarff said that it was proposed that a broad range of voter ID would be allowed including a free voter card available to those voters that do not have any form of ID.
Councillor Scarff suggested that even having to apply for this card would put people off from exercising their democratic right to vote. As of August 2020, there had only been one conviction and one caution for personation offences for the whole of the 2019 elections, hardly an overwhelming proof of a problem.
Councillor Scarff said that even the Electoral Commissions 2019 evaluation of voter ID pilots that were carried out across the country found that some groups of people would find it harder than others to show voter ID.
Currently it was estimated that over 2 million people do not have an acceptable form of ID. The Chair of the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee has said the Government must prove that the need for people to get voter ID does not act as a deterrent for people exercising their democratic right to vote. In particular the Government must demonstrate an understanding of the impact of these measures on marginalised groups and show how they plan to ensure access to all at the ballot box.
Furthermore, the Parliamentary Committee said the impact may fall
disproportionately on some groups with protected characteristics under Human Rights Law. Older people and disabled people are less likely to have photo ID and some groups such as black and Asian groups and ethnic minority groups may be more hesitant to apply for photo ID.
Councillor Scarff asked what would happen if a voter went to vote and had forgotten their photo ID. He said that currently you do not need to take your polling card. You just say who you are, and the Polling Station staff will check that you are on the electoral roll and issue you with a ballot paper. Under the new legislation they will have to go home and get their ID, or do they just give up?
Councillor Hicks said that back in 2019, the Conservatives were elected with an overwhelming majority based on their manifesto that included the elections bill. Councillor Hicks felt that the Bill was an ambitious and timely set of plans to ensure that elections were transparent, fair and accountable. A successful small trial was undertaken and had worked well to stop personation and voter fraud. The Bill would give improved confidence to the process and would also stop party campaigners from handling postal votes and vote harvesting. It would make it an offence for a person to attempt or reveal how an absent voted had voted. If anyone does not have a photo ID from the broad range of recognised documents, they can apply for a voter card from their local authority. Councillor Hicks didn’t think this was problematic but was straightforward and said that the heart of the Bill was maintaining confidence in the election process and therefore he could not support this Motion.
Councillor Stringer supported the Motion and said that the only problem with the election process was not the way the ballot box system operated and the people who work in them, it was with the potential to harvest postal votes and he felt that this was where there was a small problem. He could not see how the introduction of voter ID cards would resolve this problem. He recognised that more and more people were seeing the convenience of a postal vote and felt that there was a potential inherent danger in this as nobody would know who had signed the postal vote as there was no physical check as there was at a polling booth. He felt that the human solution at a polling station was the best solution and felt that the voter ID card was a retrograde step that could be a slippery slope to require voters to take their details to places miles away similar to the situation in the USA.
Councillor Guthrie said she had recently experienced a request from the bank when she had gone in to close a bank account and they had requested photo ID she had to drive all the way home to get it but didn’t feel this was a problem as it was done with security in mind and she felt the same way about voter ID and therefore would not be supporting this Motion.
Councillor Eburne said that she supported the Motion for the following reasons:-
4% of the population did not have any recognisable ID and would need to get this sorted out if the Bill went through and who would have to organise this, it would be the local authority.
Secondly, 87% of people according to the Electoral Commission’s research
feel that voting was safe from fraud, which Councillor Eburne felt was a very high figure.
Thirdly, in this country Councillor Eburne said that we have very well-run elections a fact that she was proud off and felt that nothing needed to change on that basis. Importantly this Council was the local authority that ran the elections and who would be expected to pay for the systems and staff to run this scheme.
Councillor Eburne felt that this was a retrograde step and was one element that should be withdrawn from the Bill.
Councillor Morley said she felt personally conflicted as a matter of general principle she felt strongly about having a single ID. However, she was concerned and worried about the ability of staff at the polling station to administer this and insist that somebody would not be able to vote without having photo ID. However as Councillor Eburne had stated only 4% of the population did not have ID she felt that she couldn’t support the Motion as she felt ID was a good thing and the only people who it would disenfranchise was the people who sought to subvert the democratic system.
Councillor Mansel said she had listened to both sides of the argument and to hear that the biggest problem was to do with postal votes. She felt that forcing people to take photo ID to be able to vote in person was not going to solve this problem therefore she would be supporting the Motion.
Councillor Otton felt that this was the thin edge of the wedge and heading towards national ID cards. She recognised that some incidences of voter fraud had taken place but felt that the proposal discriminated against a large number of people and she therefore would be supporting the Motion.
Councillor Carter said that he had recently attended a disability forum where the proposals were discussed, and it was felt that a large number of people with disabilities did not have photo ID and would struggle to fill in forms to get one. He felt that this did not solve the problems with postal voting and would just introduce another loop for people to go through to be able to vote.
Councillor Field said that we were separate from other European countries who did require people to have photo ID cards and he would be wary of putting in this type of form as a principle. He also felt that by implementing this measure it would impact on disadvantaged groups of people who didn’t have photo ID, and which would disenfranchise them further.
Councillor Warboys felt that it was a solution in search of a problem, in 2019 there were 34 allegations of voter fraud against 58 million votes. He felt that voter ID was not a solution and instead attention should be turned to how political parties were funded.
Councillor Geake emphasised the findings of the Electoral Commission’s survey that a very high number of people were satisfied that the voting system was safe and secure and didn’t like the idea of being stopped and asked for ID she also felt that the focus should be on how political parties were funded.
Councillor Whitehead said that voting was a privilege that we should take good care of. The only weakness he felt was that currently a person could turn up at a Polling Station and did not have to provide any identification.
Councillor Ekpenyong commented that he understood the concerns about voter ID however in the normal walks of life we were continually asked to provide photo ID from a security perspective and also in some other instances such as registering with a GP. Councillor Ekpenyong said that we had a right to vote and it should be proven that when you go to vote you are the person you say you are. Democracy should be guarded and made sure that it is delivered in the most safe and secure manner.
Councillor Mellen in his summary said that elections could be based on just a very few votes and it was really important that nothing was done to undermine public confidence in the electoral system. Currently confidence was high, but he knew that this could take a knock. He urged Councillors to support the Motion to avoid a huge bureaucratic administrative burden, to prevent it from being an impediment to voting and that attention should be paid to much bigger problems such as the 9 million people who were currently not even on the electoral roll.
By 16 votes for 14 votes against
It was RESOLVED:-
To oppose the introduction of photo ID as a requirement to vote at polling stations.
To request the Chairman to write to the relevant minister indicating this opposition and the reasons why and requesting this measure should be excluded from the Elections Bill.
That should mandatory photo ID be passed into law, this Council will investigate low-cost and no-cost options for residents, bearing in mind the barriers outlined and focus efforts to promote the ID to those who are most likely to need it.