A new report has highlighted the concerns raised by LGBT+ communities over a bill seeking to introduce the requirement for ID to vote.
According to the findings, released by Stonewall and the LGBT Foundation, LGBT+ people are shown to be less likely to have forms of ID required under the proposed legislation.
LGBT+ people are three times more likely to be without photo ID according to the report.
Read more: 'The UK Government is taking the right to vote off millions of people' - Rhys ab Owen MS
Particularly affecting the trans and non-binary communities, many say they have had their ID refused or questioned due to their gender identity and physical looks. Out of 262 responses to the question "Have you experienced any problems with having your ID accepted in the past?", 34% said that they were refused or questioned because their photo didn't match their physical appearance and 20% cited that their gender marker does not match their appearance. More than half of trans and non-binary people (55% and 52%) said they are less likely to vote if they have to present ID.
Currently, if you live in England, Wales or Scotland you do not need to bring any identification to vote.
During a UK government pilot scheme which was first introduced in 2019, new forms of voter ID were trialled which included photo-only ID and a mixture of photo and non-photo ID. If the ID presented by an elector raised "reasonable doubt", presiding officers were obliged to refuse issuing a ballot paper.
More recently, in June 2021, the UK Government introduced the Elections Bill. If this were to be enacted as it was introduced to Parliament, the Bill would require hopeful voters to present photo ID in polling stations for; UK parliamentary elections, English local elections, and Police and Crime Commissioner elections in England and Wales.
The reasoning put forward by the UK Government is that using photo ID will uphold the integrity of voting by limiting, and removing, voter fraud from taking place. However, campaign group Hands Off Our Vote have argued that cases of voter fraud in the UK are "minimal".
595 cases of alleged electoral fraud were investigated by the police in 2019. Only four led to a conviction and two individuals were cautioned, according to data released by the Electoral Commission.
Hailing from north Wales, campaigner for Hands Off Our Vote Maddy Dhesi said scrapping the potential requirement for voter ID is the "easiest" way to encourage marginalised communities to vote.
"It is nowhere near the proportionate response to the amount of voters that will be disenfranchised by this voter ID policy," she said.
"If you look at the figures from Stonewall, it actually affects the trans and non-binary communities disproportionately in comparison to the rest of the LGBT+ community.
"There are also a few more sinister ways in which this does harm to a number of trans and non-binary people visiting a polling station. You essentially have to out yourself as trans to the polling officers when showing your ID. And if you think if we vote in our local areas, that's really dangerous. You might not have an ID that matched your current appearance.
"Overall, it's got the same impact as it has on young people and people who are from lower income backgrounds. I think the easiest way is to just scrap voter ID in the first place. The wide ranging consequences of [scrapping ID] is not worth dealing with."
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