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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Archie Bland

Wednesday briefing: The (un)intended consequences of voter ID

A polling station in London in May 2022.
A polling station in London in May 2022. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Good morning. It’s a simple enough proposition: ask people to show photo ID if they want to vote. The government says that a new law coming into effect next year will ensure the integrity of elections, and reinforce public trust in British democracy. But others say the reality is a lot more complicated than that.

The strongest critics of the Elections Act argue that, far from being an attempt to secure the voting system, it is a “shameless voter-suppression bill” – and, given there was only one conviction for voter impersonation at the 2017 election, totally unnecessary in any case.

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