bazzaliskRequiring an ID card to vote is absolutely fine in theory, provided everyone has easy access to getting one. The problem as I see it is places where the requirement is being added in an environment where availability of ID is disproportionately different amongst different groups of people.
@bazzalisk and in many cases the same people making ID compulsory for voting are also resisting the introduction of widely available free ID.
If you were doing it honestly then you would introduce a standard free ID card first, and only once it was widely available and easily obtainable would you even consider making ID mandatory for voting.
Grumpy Pup@bazzalisk Any government that wanted to make voter ID accessible to _everyone_ could do it, by making it free. Governments spend so many billions on other things, a few hundred million on admin costs is neither here nor there.
Conclusion: it's designed to make it harder to certain groups of people to vote.
If some charity or crowdfunder were able to fill that gap and help people to get ID who otherwise couldn't afford it or navigate the process, I'd be happy to donate.
David@bazzalisk obviously, it's not being done honestly, because the current Tory party is fundamentally dishonest
Annoying Cynic@bazzalisk I agree - but in our dystopia this can help at
East up to the next general election https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/free-voter-id-uk-4023209
East up to the next general election https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/free-voter-id-uk-4023209
MikeyWikey@bazzalisk I seem to remember Blair’s government rejecting ID cards due to the cost and the time it would take to implement. I’m personally not against having an ID card per se, but I wouldn’t buy one, and the alleged voter fraud reasoning is a dead cat, put about by a government so used to their own dishonest behaviour, that they smear the entire population with their own ordure.
@MikeyWikey Blair’s government planned ID cards, but there was massive opposition to it from various people. Cameron cancelled the scene after it had already cost £many. Some of the opposition was over the details of the plan, some was knee-jerk, and some was over high minded principles of various sorts. Personally I think this was a bit of an own goal.
@bazzalisk Ah, OK. My memory of it was obviously a little sketchy - other than it was a thing. Didn’t realise it ended under Cameron though.
@MikeyWikey one of the very first things he did. Though by that point it had been delayed and delayed and delayed.