Woking Borough Council criticised for requesting ID to apply for postal vote
There are concerns it could discourage people from voting
Labour has accused Woking council of potentially hindering marginal groups from voting by asking people to show photo ID if they want a postal or proxy vote.
This is not required by law in Britain, which demands only a signature and date of birth.
But Woking Borough Council (WBC) says on its website that to apply for a postal or proxy vote, “you are requested to provide” copies of photo ID, for example a passport or driving licence, and proof of residence such as a utility bill or bank statement.
It says by ‘requesting’ it is not breaching electoral rules, but the webpage does not tell people it is not compulsory.
When clicking on the link to apply, the resulting document reads: “If you do not provide such evidence, your application will still be processed, but your registration at the property will be examined further. This could result in your name being removed from the electoral register.”
The council says this is to help prevent electoral fraud, after the 2012 result in the Maybury and Sheerwater ward had to be thrown out.
Liberal Democrat candidate Mohammed Bashir defeated his Labour counterpart Mohammad Ali by 16 votes, but a High Court legal battle found ‘ghost voters’ had been registered in the run-up to the election – non-residents’ names added to the electoral register.
But despite his party having been the victim of electoral fraud, Labour group leader Tahir Aziz, who represents Canalside, said he wants the request for ID to be removed.
“My worry is that Covid will affect turnout as well and we want to encourage people to get a postal vote so they don’t have to go out,” he said.
“I have a large number of minorities in my ward and it’s very difficult to encourage some of them to vote.
“Some people have ID issues; they have a legal right to vote but they may have visa extension issues, or their passport is held up at the Home Office for months.
“This kind of extra layer of bureaucracy is not going to help.”
Liberal Democrat group leader Ann-Marie Barker said the returning officer rejected her suggestion that it should be relaxed because of Covid concerns.
“We should not be discouraging the average law-abiding voter from having a postal vote,” she said.
“Many people will opt for a postal vote as a safer option this year and the more we can do to reduce the pressure on polling stations the better.”
Conservative council leader Ayesha Azad has defended the policy, saying it helps to ‘give assurance to voters that elections are fair’.
She said: “Woking’s issues with voting fraud are well-documented. Asking people to provide this identification when applying for postal votes is therefore a sensible precaution.”
A WBC spokesperson said: “We request the additional information to ensure that the person seeking a postal vote both lives at the address and is the person they claim to be.
“Where the information is provided it enables us to quickly process the postal vote application. If the information is not provided in full, it may delay the application, whilst we validate the application from other sources.
“Through this process, the electoral registration officer seeks to ensure the integrity of the election by minimising the risk of electoral fraud.”
But research by the Electoral Commission in 2015 showed that around 3.5 million citizens in the country – 7.5% of the electorate – do not have access to photo ID.
Dr Alia Middleton, who lectures in politics at the University of Surrey, said: “Inevitably, it tends to be the elderly, less well off, disabled, BAME, urban dwellers etc, including a disproportionate number of women, who do not have these forms of ID passports and driving licences.
“It seems an unnecessary burden for people from disadvantaged groups, who are already being disproportionately affected by Covid – which is the reason many may be seeking to cast postal votes – and may in themselves be not only less likely to possess the ‘required’ forms of ID, but also not necessarily have the facilities to provide it.
“It strikes me that it will actively discourage some from voting – unnecessarily – and unlike the earlier trials, we aren’t likely to know how many people this affects.”
Woking took part in a government-led trial in 2018 and 2019 where voters were not allowed to vote in a polling station unless they showed a form of photo ID.
It did not appear to result in a marked decrease in turnout.
However, 51 people were restricted from voting in the first year, when 89 people were turned away for bringing no ID or the wrong ID, and more than half did not return.
The year before, 87 were initially turned away and quarter of these did not return.
Dr Middleton said: “We should remember that Woking is one of the trial areas that is relatively ‘wealthy’; trials elsewhere, particularly in northern trial areas such as Pendle Lancashire, saw 36% of those turned away not returning.” And in Derby it was 50%.
The Electoral Commission’s 2018 report said it did not have enough evidence to be able to “draw firm conclusions about whether the ID requirement had a disproportionate impact on particular groups of people, for example those with a learning or physical disability”.
The 2019 report warned that “allowing only existing forms of officially issued photo ID would not be accessible for everyone” and there would need to be other options, for example providing free of charge locally issued photo ID.
Local elector cards were available in the Woking trial and 67 were issued across the two years.
Cllr Azad: “Every year since the voter ID pilot began in 2018 the Conservative Party has faced accusations of voter suppression and disenfranchisement. Every year, the results of elections and turnout figures do not bear this out.
“Far from discouraging voters from under-represented groups, the Conservative Woking Borough Council has worked with organisations like the York Road Project and others to get voter ID cards and identification for residents who might otherwise not have them, as well as encourage them to register to vote.”
All voters nationwide are expected to have to show ID to vote by 2023 as part of a new Electoral Integrity Bill.
It will not be required for this May’s elections in Woking or any other Surrey borough.