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Local elections: Voter ID misinformation could stop people turning up [1]

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Date: 2023-05

Misinformation around the new voter ID laws could stop people from taking part in elections, campaigners have warned.

The requirement for photo ID will be in play for the first time at next week’s local elections across England. But a government scheme offering free “voter authority certificates” closed yesterday having received just 85,689 applications – 4.3% of the estimated two million people who don’t have valid photo ID.

There are widespread concerns that voter ID laws could stop marginalised people from voting. Trans, ethnic minority and disabled people were highlighted by MPs on the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) as being among the groups that will be most impacted.

Matteo Bergamini, founder and CEO of Shout Out UK, a campaign group that works in schools and under-represented communities to improve political and media literacy, told openDemocracy that a lack of awareness of the new rules combined with a distrust of authority has led to misinformation. This “creates a very hostile environment to get any information” out of people that could ultimately stop them voting.

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“The biggest challenge is [a] lack of knowledge,” he said. “It's one thing going in talking about the changes to electoral law to a politically literate population. It's a whole different ball game when you're dealing from zero in a lot of cases, compounded by the fact that there is a lot of misinformation, distrust and frustration towards anything to do with government and politics at the moment.

“[For] example, the voter authority certificate… was fairly straightforward to apply for. You're not giving away any information to the government because frankly, the government has all this information on you anyway.

“The perception amongst a portion of the population is they don't want to apply for it because they don't want to give the government more power over them. It's a myth. But it's a very powerful myth that will naturally push people away from potentially getting that voter ID certificate, and therefore if they don't have any other form of ID [this] may potentially exclude them from engaging in our democracy.”

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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/local-elections-uk-voter-id-awareness-misinformation/

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