Former Tory prime minister Boris Johnson has got himself back in the news by turning up to his local polling station on election day without the required voter ID – foiled by a law his own government brought in. He resorted to trying to use a magazine as ID!
Eye-rolling aside, it helps highlight how obstructive this law is to voting. More serious examples include a solider of 27 years being turned away trying to use a veterans ID card, which have come into being after the acceptable forms of ID were published. And he is not alone. A 2023 Newcastle University study found that 70% of poll workers turned away at least one voter because they did not have an acceptable form of identification in last year’s local elections. Women in particular were hit, because they got married and changed their names, meaning their ID and register names were different. And the availability of identification is lower among those with a severely limiting disability, the unemployed and those without educational qualifications.
The voter ID laws are yet another barrier to voting and help explain low turnouts. The main issue is of course finding something worth voting for! And that’s why Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidates stood to offer that socialist alternative on 2 May.
