In their handling and defending of the controversial new policy, the Tories have made some pretty dubious claims.

 

8,057 council seats are up for grabs in the local elections on May 4. As voters head to the polling stations, they will have to, for the first time ever, carry photographic ID to show their identity.

The new law, which is a result of the Elections Act, designed to ‘strengthen the integrity of the electoral process’ and ‘combat electoral fraud,’ has attracted widespread criticism.

Opposition ministers, charities and campaigners have warned that it will discriminate against marginalised groups and lock millions of people out of the electoral process. 

The government is under pressure over the new rules after it was estimated that around 4 percent of the UK population – around 2 million people – are unlikely to have a valid form of photo ID to vote.

Meanwhile, in their handling and defending of the policy, the Tories have made some pretty dubious claims.

1. Tory leaflet tells people they don’t need ID to vote in local elections

You would think that information pushed out by the Tories on their own policies would be correct and without errors. But no, a campaign leaflet distributed recently in Norwich, a strongly Labour voting area, stated: “You don’t need to take any ID in order to vote, so long as you are registered.”

The leaflet was spotted by opposition campaigners and reported to the Electoral Commission. The local Conservative Federation apologised and said a “printing error” was to blame for the leaflet sent out to voters containing false advice, but said the template came from CCHQ.

Simon Jones, chairman of the Norwich Conservative Federation, said the leaflet had been “centrally produced and printed” from the Tory party’s headquarters.

“Unfortunately, their content contained information which was out of date and did not reflect recent changes to voter ID,” said the local chairman.

“We delivered a small number of these before realising their mistake but suspended delivery as soon as the issue was identified,” he continued.

The Liberal Democrats wrote to Tory chairman Greg Hands demanding a party inquiry into the “highly misleading” local Tory leaflets.

Helen Morgan, spokesperson for the party’s local government, asked: “Was the material for these leaflets centrally produced by Conservative campaign headquarters, and if so, how many could have been printed across the country?”

The leaflet carrying fake information quickly started trending online. The prospect was raised of whether the mishap was a deliberate attempt of targeted voter suppression.

“Straight out of the Republic playbook,” wrote one user.

2- Watchdog finds claim of voter fraud is misleading

In 2018, as the Conservatives argued in favour of trailing compulsory voter ID, the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), the official statistics watchdog, questioned the accuracy of government claims about voter fraud.

Citing Electoral Commission data, the Cabinet Office said the trial for English voters was deemed necessary “after reports of alleged electoral fraud through voter impersonation more than doubled between 2014 and 2016.”

A voter had complained to the UKSA about the claim, saying that not only was the dataset tiny – a rise from 21 cases in 2014 to 44 in 2016 – but that the Cabinet Office had failed to mention that the number of allegations then fell by more than a third in 2017, to 28.

They also pointed out that in 2016, when the EU referendum took place, more than twice as many votes were cast than in 2014, meaning the rise in cases was even more statistically meaningless.

Darren Hughes, chief executive of the ERS, said the statistics watchdog’s verdict illustrated the “dodgy foundations” of the scheme.

He said: “Ministers are grasping at straws, and their draconian push to make ordinary voters show their papers before using their right to vote now looks desperate. The government must stop trying to trick voters and come clean.”

3- UK data shows no cases of impersonation

Rishi Sunak has attempted to defend the controversial new policy, claiming that it would help ensure elections are ‘high-integrity processes.’  When asked whether it would cause issues, including “angry complaints”, the PM said: “No, this is something that has been in the tray for a while now, so it’s been well-looked at”.

“I think, [we don’t need to] rehash all the arguments why this is a sensible thing to do,” he said.

However, in the run-up to the local elections when the ID rule will be in force for the first time, the government has faced renewed accusations that the policy is a waste of resources, money and time. The criticism came as statistics showed there was not a single proven case of in-person voter impersonation in 2022.

Data from the Electoral Commission said that in elections in 2022, which covered local elections in England, Scotland and Wales, elections to the Northern Ireland assembly, a series of mayoral elections in England and six Commons byelections, there were seven allegations of “personation” at polling stations. However, no action was taken on any of these cases by police because there was either insufficient evidence to proceed or no evidence of wrongdoing, the report found.

Minimal take-up for free official voter documents

Meanwhile, official data has also shown that there has been a minimal take-up of free official voter documents before the first mass use of ID during local elections in England on May 4. With the deadline to obtain a free ‘Voter Authority Certificate’ now passed, the Tories have been accused of being “recklessly slow” in making the public aware of the controversial policy forcing voters to show ID in polling stations.

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward

Image credit: Twitter screen grab

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