Photo ID required if you want to vote in person

[oddoneout]

Do we know what the date of polling day is yet? We haven't had our cards. Last time (local council) we had a 'Kafkaesque' (q.v.) experience trying to get into the polling station.

Well the date of the General Election is 4th July.
Not a lot of time for folks to get sorted if they haven't done so already re registration etc https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote
Thousands of students are going to be otherwise occupied(exam season) so may well find themselves excluded - assuming they are even interested in voting - either through lack of registration or through the photo ID issue, with their travel cards not being accepted even though OAP ones are. The Voter Authority Certificate route isn't as foolproof as it should be, and the application system crashed ahead of the May local elections - old story, government IT systems... - and that was with minimal percentage of potential applications.

[french frank]

Do we know what the date of polling day is yet? We haven't had our cards. Last time (local council) we had a 'Kafkaesque' (q.v.) experience trying to get into the polling station.

It was the date of the election that they announced. Polling cards must be sent out 'as soon as practicable' after the election is called but councils may have been wrong-footed this time. Bristol aims to send out cards about six weeks before polling day but I haven't had mine yet. The catch is that people who feel voting is important make the effort to find such matters out, but most of the British public is apathetic, uninformed and untroubled about it until they encounter some hitch.

[eighthobstruction]

....Talking to a person [64ish] last week who still had only a paper (remember that) driving licence; having never been asked to renew it....he has just had a devil of a job to get one of those citizens cards too, due a number of anomalies ; which I will not bore you with....but not having a passport, and professional friends being retired and ineligible to sign photo, he ended up getting a friendly pharamacist to do it....and then there is the getting 'proper' photo saga....I believe it took at least a couple of weeks or more + possible 3 week wait to recieve it....(unless you pay££ for a expedited effort)

[Dave2002]

It was the date of the election that they announced. Polling cards must be sent out 'as soon as practicable' after the election is called but councils may have been wrong-footed this time. Bristol aims to send out cards about six weeks before polling day but I haven't had mine yet. The catch is that people who feel voting is important make the effort to find such matters out, but most of the British public is apathetic, uninformed and untroubled about it until they encounter some hitch.

Now I'm having to wait for my postal vote papers, and also note the date on which I need to report such as not having arrived.

I'm hopeful I won't have to go that route - after all - things do sometimes work out "as intended, or hoped for" - but also quite often they don't.

Seems also that if things don't work out too well, that as long as I can prove I applied for a postal vote, then there are procedures even up to quite late on or before Polling Day to make sure my vote is accepted.

See https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/postal-voting and linked pages.

There are some curious features of postal voting, one being that I can take a photo of my voting paper and put it up on social media, or wherever I feel like it. OTOH, it's an offence to take a photo of anyone else's postal voting slips, or co-erce them to do so, etc. etc.

[LMcD]

Now I'm having to wait for my postal vote papers, and also note the date on which I need to report such as not having arrived.

I'm hopeful I won't have to go that route - after all - things do sometimes work out "as intended, or hoped for" - but also quite often they don't.

Seems also that if things don't work out too well, that as long as I can prove I applied for a postal vote, then there are procedures even up to quite late on or before Polling Day to make sure my vote is accepted.

See https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/postal-voting and linked pages.

There are some curious features of postal voting, one being that I can take a photo of my voting paper and put it up on social media, or wherever I feel like it. OTOH, it's an offence to take a photo of anyone else's postal voting slips, or co-erce them to do so, etc. etc.

I shall take both my passport and my bus pass just to make sure that I can vote for NOTA, my write-in candidate. Our Thursday morning social group meets in the same building that houses the polling station, and some of the ladies would almost certainly have something to say if I wasn't seen to vote at some point between 10 am. and noon!

[smittims]

I need the card to know where to go as the site of the polling station varies around here. I suppose the council web-site may tell us, if the cards don',arrive in time.

[oddoneout]

....Talking to a person [64ish] last week who still had only a paper (remember that) driving licence; having never been asked to renew it....he has just had a devil of a job to get one of those citizens cards too, due a number of anomalies ; which I will not bore you with....but not having a passport, and professional friends being retired and ineligible to sign photo, he ended up getting a friendly pharamacist to do it....and then there is the getting 'proper' photo saga....I believe it took at least a couple of weeks or more + possible 3 week wait to recieve it....(unless you pay££ for a expedited effort)

I can well believe that, there are so many points at which the process can stall, even if one can do it online - getting the system to accept a digitally submitted photo(eg from a phone) may not work. It is also misleading I think to say that the certificate is free - the final document may not have a charge but if one has to get a passport standard photo and get it countersigned, that comes at a cost, one which may well be beyond some people's budgets, and just printing off the form to start the non-digital process may well cost - our library has printing facilities but for a charge. Whether the council in some form (Electoral Registration Office appears to be where all queries/requests for help should be addressed) would help I don't know, and in any case for a lot of people such an office wouldn't necessarily be accessible in terms of location or opening times. It's not as if there are months until the item is needed in which to allow documents to navigate the combined obstacles of officialdom and Royal Mail either.
What makes the whole thing even more stupid is that postal votes are still allowed and that is the method that has been subject to abuse at scale - care home residents for one - although even then it hardly justifies the current "crime prevention" mammoth blunt instrument. Anyone would think that crime prevention wasn't the main objective...

[teamsaint]

....Talking to a person [64ish] last week who still had only a paper (remember that) driving licence; having never been asked to renew it....he has just had a devil of a job to get one of those citizens cards too, due a number of anomalies ; which I will not bore you with....but not having a passport, and professional friends being retired and ineligible to sign photo, he ended up getting a friendly pharamacist to do it....and then there is the getting 'proper' photo saga....I believe it took at least a couple of weeks or more + possible 3 week wait to recieve it....(unless you pay££ for a expedited effort)

Well it saves money keeping the paper one, at least. I still have mine. Although money saving is certainly not the reason, obvs.....

[french frank]

I need the card to know where to go as the site of the polling station varies around here. I suppose the council web-site may tell us, if the cards don',arrive in time.

I'd say the council website will tell you. On the Bristol website you only have to fill in your post code (I've just checked: it takes a few seconds having googled Bristol local authority polling stations). No need to remain in suspense!

[oddoneout]

Well it saves money keeping the paper one, at least. I still have mine. Although money saving is certainly not the reason, obvs.....

One of the last few cases where one is not forced to change for the sake of it and to suit "them", unless a change of address or some such arises. I had mixed feelings about getting a photocard version, but as it turned out it was useful as my passport expired - but not before I was able to use the photo on it for the driving licence, so there wasn't a cost for the change. It is more useful than a passport as ID, being small enough to keep in a cardholder with bus pass and bank cards, and so always with me.

I've just realised that it'll need renewing next year as I reach another age-related milestone - as if I needed to be reminded that I'm getting older!

[teamsaint]

One of the last few cases where one is not forced to change for the sake of it and to suit "them", unless a change of address or some such arises. I had mixed feelings about getting a photocard version, but as it turned out it was useful as my passport expired - but not before I was able to use the photo on it for the driving licence, so there wasn't a cost for the change. It is more useful than a passport as ID, being small enough to keep in a cardholder with bus pass and bank cards, and so always with me.

I've just realised that it'll need renewing next year as I reach another age-related milestone - as if I needed to be reminded that I'm getting older!

Yep, no doubt that it has use as ID. My only photo ID is my passport. Mind you when the Digital ID Framework is implemented, that function will be obsolete.

We probably have been over the arguments about digital ID quite enough,but I would think the lesson from Voter ID issues is surely that we need to be very careful about what is put in place, because things do go wrong.

[oddoneout]

Yep, no doubt that it has use as ID. My only photo ID is my passport. Mind you when the Digital ID Framework is implemented, that function will be obsolete.

We probably have been over the arguments about digital ID quite enough,but I would think the lesson from Voter ID issues is surely that we need to be very careful about what is put in place, because things do go wrong.

To which I would add as relevant in this case "by whom and for what purpose".

[LMcD]

Yep, no doubt that it has use as ID. My only photo ID is my passport. Mind you when the Digital ID Framework is implemented, that function will be obsolete.

We probably have been over the arguments about digital ID quite enough,but I would think the lesson from Voter ID issues is surely that we need to be very careful about what is put in place, because things do go wrong.

A passport is the only acceptable form of ID for non-motorists wishing to carry out financial transactions under an LPA,.

[smittims]

The council web-site was indeed helpful,and I see this time we have quite a llist of candidates, including the Green party, Reform party 'Crewe first party' (oddly from someone who opposed the setting up of a Town Council!) and our old friends the Monster Raving Loony party.

I'll be interested to see how many votes these smaller parties get . I'm not saying we shouldn't allow them, but I imagine most people will feel the need to vote for someone who can actually form a government. Despite that I was saddened to hear a mature man, who didn't; seem to be a fool, say in a supermarket queue on Saturday that he had given up voting because 'there's no point , they're all the same'.

[oddoneout]

The council web-site was indeed helpful,and I see this time we have quite a llist of candidates, including the Green party, Reform party 'Crewe first party' (oddly from someone who opposed the setting up of a Town Council!) and our old friends the Monster Raving Loony party.

I'll be interested to see how many votes these smaller parties get . I'm not saying we shouldn't allow them, but I imagine most people will feel the need to vote for someone who can actually form a government. Despite that I was saddened to hear a mature man, who didn't; seem to be a fool, say in a supermarket queue on Saturday that he had given up voting because 'there's no point , they're all the same'.

And that man's comment is the reason why we need the small, "no-hope" options I would argue. It gives disaffected voters the chance to at least put a cross on a ballot paper and register their lack of support for the binary option, and voting is the priority, not the viability of the candidate. This is my situation - there is no realistic way the tory seat will change, even if the candidate does, so all I can do is say, via my cross, "not my MP".
The apathy and disgust so many feel could yet cause problems for the final outcome if it results in a low turnout. "They're all the same" is nothing new as a complaint, but I think is perhaps felt by far more now than before, and towards both parties, if for different reasons. For many voters just getting rid of the current government is the priority, the structure of the next doesn't figure highly, if at all.