Liberty responds to Electoral Integrity Bill announcement

• Compulsory ID by 2023 elections is a threat to democracy
• Marginalised groups most at risk
• Liberty calls for plans to be shelved

Sam Grant, head of policy and campaigns and Liberty, said: ‘In a healthy democracy everyone should have the right to vote, however introduction of mandatory voter ID is a very real threat to this right.

‘If you’re young, if you’re a person of colour, if you’re disabled, trans or you don’t have a fixed address, you’re much less likely to have valid photo ID and could therefore be shut off from voting.

‘Research by the Electoral Commission found in 2015 about 3.5 million citizens or 7.5 per cent of the electorate did not have access to any approved photo ID.

‘The Electoral Reform Society has also conducted research that found during the Government’s May 2018 voter ID pilot, twice as many people were blocked from voting than there were cases of voter fraud in the preceding seven years. Those currently in power are grossly inflating the risk of electoral fraud as an excuse to usher in ever greater surveillance of the British public. Voter ID is a solution in search of a problem.’