Critical CupcakeJan 20, 2023

🚨 IMPORTANT 🚨

If you're in the UK, you will no longer allowed to vote without a valid photo ID.

You can get a free ID from the government with just a photo and your National Insurance Number here.

https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate

Apply for photo ID to vote (called a ‘Voter Authority Certificate’)

Apply for photo ID to vote (Voter Authority Certificate) in some elections and referendums in Great Britain if you do not have an accepted form of ID.

GOV.UK
Show threadPaolo RedaelliJan 20, 2023
@CriticalCupcake
Voting is one a very few things that should require strong identification. Here in Italy voting has required providing an identification document with photo since at least the '90
@kornel
Show threadPaolo RedaelliJan 20, 2023
@CriticalCupcake
Without photo identification frauds are much easier
@kornel
Show threadKornel

@paoloredaelli @CriticalCupcake The fraud people imagine largely doesn't happen. In some contexts "voter fraud" just means "the poorest people use their legal right to vote and we don't like that".

In the UK there's a requirement to register to vote, which assigns the voter to a specific location, and the name is crossed out from the list when they give out a ballot. This is pretty secure, because if someone stole an identity, it'd be noticed, because the name would already be crossed out.

Jan 20, 2023 at 6:01pmWeb
Show threadKornelJan 20, 2023
@paoloredaelli @CriticalCupcake Also keep in mind that a volunteer at busy a polling station will not be able to tell the difference between an authentic ID document and a laminated paper from a laser printer.
Show threadPaolo RedaelliJan 20, 2023
@kornel
Well, I obviously don't know English voting system and ID cards. 😥😰😨
I beg your pardon.
"Modern" Italian id cards are much more elaborated than a laminated paper…
@CriticalCupcake
Show threadEd DaviesJan 20, 2023

@paoloredaelli English, and other British, people don't generally have ID cards other than passports (if they have them), driving licences (if they have them), bus passes (if they have them) and so on.

There is a general revulsion at the idea of having a single and/or compulsory ID card stemming, at least in part, from the general unpleasantness across Europe just prior to 1945. There was an attempt, about a decade ago, to introduce them but it was pretty widely rejected and the government didn't persist with it.

@kornel @CriticalCupcake

Show threadPaolo RedaelliJan 20, 2023
@kornel
Also in Italy one must vote where he resides and not elsewhere. But frauds do happen and we always underestimate the creativity of fraudsters. I endorse freedom for almost everything else but I endorse many fraud proof countermeasures when we reason about voting
@CriticalCupcake
Show threadPaolo RedaelliJan 20, 2023
@kornel
For example when I vote I must go to a very specific ballot and not elsewhere in my city.
@CriticalCupcake
Show threadEbly PamplemousseJan 20, 2023
@paoloredaelli @kornel @CriticalCupcake In the UK, in 2019 (a year where we had local (council) elections, EU parliamentary elections and elections to UK parliament; 8 different types of election throughout the country), there were 595 cases of alleged electoral fraud.
Out of that, 2 people were given police cautions and there were 4 convictions.
Requiring photo ID to vote is like using a bulldozer to crack a shelled peanut.