Under new government plans, the next time you go to the ballot box you will need to show some form of photo ID - and about time too! PLEASE SUPPORT MY YOUTUBE WORK ON PATREON:
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The Queen's Speech tomorrow is expected to contain new plans to tackle electoral fraud.
This will include the requirement for all voters to show some form of photo ID before they can vote, as well as further measures to limit proxy voting and stopping the ability of political parties and activists to harvest postal ballots.
These new laws will be brought in by an 'Electoral Integrity Bill' designed to clamp down on ballot box fraud.
So you will be expected to take your driving licence or passport along with you to the polling station the next time you vote.
And if you cast votes by proxy for other people, you'll be limited to a maximum of two.
And political parties and activists will no longer be able to go around collecting postal ballots direct from voters and then hand deliver them to the polling station on election day.
There is also expected to be a system for voters without passports or driving licences to get a free 'electoral ID' from their local council offices.
The Telegraph quotes a government source as saying:
"A secure electoral system is vital. By changing the law to require voters to show some ID, as they do in many other daily activities, and taking steps to cut down proxy and postal voter fraud, we can ensure that everyone's vote counts and strengthen public trust in our democracy."
I'm hoping that postal votes will also be made much harder to obtain, by limiting them to people who really physically cannot get to the polling station on the day. But I've seen no mention of that.
The Labour Party is expected to get up right in arms about this, as they always seem to like the loosest possible voting system, don't they?
But for me, democracy is precious, democracy is important, so we must treat it with great care - even if it costs a bit more money.
And if that means we have to open more polling stations and have more people paid to provide personnel at those polling stations to cater with these new requirements, then so be it.
And the money required for free voter IDs and the extra people needed to administer these arrangements, will also be a small price for local taxpayers to cough up in order to bolster the now flagging integrity of our voting system and UK democracy in general.
Now, there is a big push from some on the left to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote, presumably because they are more likely to have left leaning views.
That would be a step too far for me, as well as most people I know. But one thing that could be done is to have a separate but parallel voting system for 16 and 17 year olds.
The idea being that anyone over the age of 16 can register to vote, but if an election takes place before they reach the age of 18 they are issued with say a distinctively coloured ballot paper and place it in a separate ballot box.
Those votes could then be counted and announced separately in the normal way although they would not be included in the main ballot, so have no actual electoral weight.
That, I think, would encourage young people to register to vote and will allow them the opportunity to engage with democracy.
And although the results of those ballots would not impact politics directly, you can bet your bottom dollar political parties would be extremely interested in what these next time real voters have to say.
It could in fact shift UK government policy and the way that politicians communicate and engage with younger people across the board.
Just a thought.
#Brexit
#Democracy
#UKDemocracy
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