When Boris Johnson attempted to cast his ballot in the elections on Thursday, he was denied entry to his local polling place due to his failure to present the necessary picture identification.
When the former prime minister first showed up for the South Oxfordshire police and crime commissioner election, poll workers informed him that he would not be permitted to cast a ballot unless he could provide identification.
The Elections Act, which Johnson sponsored in 2022 while serving on Downing Street, stipulates that voters must have a photo ID, therefore the gaffe was embarrassing for him.
The measure may prevent hundreds of thousands of individuals from exercising their right to vote, according to the Electoral Commission, which has expressed concern that some groups may be disproportionately affected by it.
Johnson eventually cast a ballot despite having forgotten his picture ID, according to a person close to him. A representative said, “Mr. Johnson voted Conservative.” He had commented on X earlier on Thursday, saying, “The polls are now open.” Cast a Conservative ballot!
It happened after the minister for veterans expressed regret to ex-service members who were unable to cast ballots in the English municipal elections using their veterans IDs.
Downing Street announced that it would “look into” amending the contentious laws requiring a photo ID in order to cast a ballot in order to add veteran’s ID cards to the list of acceptable forms of identification.
Johnny Mercer, the pastor, was answering a grievance from a veteran who claimed he was turned away at a voting location. “I apologise for this. Before the veterans ID cards were introduced in January of this year, the laws governing authorised forms of identification were released. Mercer tweeted, “I’ll try my hardest to make the necessary changes before the next one.
According to a government official, serving members of the armed forces’ defence identity cards are already accepted, and the veterans’ card will soon be added to the list of acceptable forms of identification. They stated, “We are already consulting on this.”
A representative for Rishi Sunak had earlier stated that Downing Street was not concerned about voter ID in general, saying, “We want everyone to be able to vote; we don’t want to see anyone turned away from polling places.” Based on past local election results, 99.75% of voters were able to successfully cast a ballot.
The small number of approved pieces of identification, especially the choice to accept documents like an elderly person’s bus pass but virtually none for younger people, such other transport permits and student documents, has drawn harsh criticism for ministers.
The Election Commission issued a warning last year, stating that it was challenging to evaluate the effects of needing a photo ID in order to cast a ballot.
It stated that those from minority ethnic backgrounds, the poor, and those with impairments may be disproportionately affected by the legislation, and that the disenfranchisement effect of the regulations would probably be proportionately larger in a general election.
Four percent of those who did not cast a ballot in May of last year cited voter ID as the reason. In the event that this percentage increases to 5%, around 800,000 voters might abstain from voting in a general election.
As polls for the local elections in England and Wales opened, a Tory MP was one of the people who was taken off guard by the voter ID requirement. Tom Hunt, the MP for Ipswich, claimed that his dyspraxia was the cause of his document loss.
Bit of drama,” wrote Hunt in a message to his local Conservative WhatsApp group. It seems I don’t have the right ID to cast a ballot tomorrow. If you misplace your ID, there’s an emergency proxy option available. Who is interested in the honours?
However, considering his developmental coordination impairment, Hunt claimed it was unacceptable for Labour and social media users to make fun of him for misplacing his documents.
He told the Evening Standard, “I don’t want to blame my dyspraxia for everything, but it’s a factor in my life I have to deal with.” “People saying we need more neurodiverse members of parliament is all well and good, but I don’t think it will encourage more people if we put a huge pile-on on them.”
Despite the ID requirements, “most voters,” according to the Electoral Commission, were nonetheless allowed to cast their ballots.
“Millions of voters were able to exercise their democratic rights, and our initial assessment of the elections is that they were well run,” a spokeswoman stated. “This is evidence of the hard work and dedication of electoral administrators, who make sure that polls are conducted honestly and efficiently.”
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