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 threadKornelJan 20, 2023

@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.

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 threadEbly Pamplemousse
@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.
Jan 20, 2023 at 7:02pmWeb