I voted yesterday. Fortunately, I carry by photo ID in my wallet as I might have forgotten otherwise. I did try to see if my Labour Party ID would be accepted, but it is not photographic, so it was not.
Apparently, some who knew better had forgotten theirs, but they had the time and means to go back and collect it before returning to vote. That is not the case with all. I voted before I went to work and would not have had the time to vote if I had not done so, or the time to collect by voter ID as I had to get into work by a certain time. Others had issues with voting which they were not able to overcome.
While the Conservatives point out that Voter ID is in use in Europe, carrying forms of ID is the norm in many European nations, whereas this is not the case in the UK. The idea of compulsory ID cards was discussed in the past, but has been rejected due to concerns over civil liberties.
Conservatives have mentioned that this is in use in Northern Ireland, but the electorate there wanted this due to a perception that electoral fraud was taking place. In Northern Ireland, the tongue-in-cheek slogan "Vote early, vote often" has underlined the fact that unscrupulous individuals were always on the lookout for opportunities to cheat. Allegations existed that both sides engaged in this, but one was more prolific than the other and people would turn up to vote to find that someone had stolen their vote! When challenged about this taking place on the mainland, Conservatives have not been able to cite such examples taking place on as significant a scale.
Another thing that is mentioned by Conservative supporters is that we need ID to collect packages from the post office. But the many forms of ID used in such examples are not acceptable to vote. I have collected parcels with my bank card on many an occasion but am not allowed to vote using the same proof, and photographic ID is not needed to open a bank account.
I suspect many who did not vote in these elections will find out the hard way that voter ID will be needed in the next General Election and we know that those who are more likely to vote Conservative are more likely to have acceptable ID.
