Plymouth calls for voted ID to be scrapped

Two in three people didn't vote in May elections

Voter ID should be scrapped and the money spent on encouraging more people to get interested in local democracy. That was the verdict of one of Plymouth city councillor this week.

Cllr Bill Stevens (Lab, Devonport) said considering only 38,000 out of 158,000 people eligilble to vote in person in this May’s local elections did so, effort should be spent “make it easier not harder” for people to vote.

The 32 per cent turnout in the city was slightly lower than the last comparable elections and 86 people who came to vote didn’t bring the correct ID.

New identifcation rules were introduced this year following a case of electoral fraud in Tower Hamlets in London. They have proved controversial, with critics claiming it favours older voters and addresses a problem that doesn’t exist.

The change means extra administration work for electoral staff. In Plymouth, additional funding of £60,000 has been allocated by the government to promote voter ID ahead of the next general election.

Assessing the impact of voter ID on Plymouth residents and the council, members of the audit and governance committee said they couldn’t fault the elections’ team and the low turnout was not down to voter ID.

Cllr Stevens said: “I have no criticism of the approach of our staff, this is not about them doing a shoddy job. Just the opposite; it’s about the government shoving this on us. Efforts should go into targeting those who don’t vote. All we are doing is making it harder for them, we are going in the wrong direction.

Councillors said voter ID was not a new concept internationally and it has been in place in Northern Ireland for some time.

“I understand the argument as what happened in Tower Hamlets was monstrous and in Northern Ireland there is a history of electoral malpractice but we don’t have it here in Plymouth,” added Cllr Stephens.

Cllr Lee Finn (Con, Budshead) said the campaign was well run and communicated. “We councillors have a lot of work to reach people who made it clear why they didn’t want to vote. We have to take some responsibility for the low turnout.”

Cllr Alison Raynsford (Lab, St Peter and the Waterfront) said postal voting should be promoted to make it easier for people to vote.

Councillors were told that many people are oblivious to voter ID rules as they only participate in general elections so there will need to be another media campaign.