By Ellen Berry, head of The UK Democracy Fund, an independent, non-partisan fund focused on building a healthy democracy in which everyone can participate and where political power is shared. Established in 2019 by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, the pooled Fund is supported by a group of committed funders to address the challenge of funding democratic participation and tackling political inequality.
Our current electoral system is a victorian relic, unfit for our modern democracy. Over generations it has failed to engage marginalised demographics, meaning that election after election the same voices go unheard. In this election, only half of adults voted. The outcome is political inequality. Laws are made for voters. Those who vote, are simply better catered for by politicians – whatever their stripe.
The impact on the people ACEVO members work with will be clear enough to you. If young people, those from racialised and minoritised ethnicities, migrants, those experiencing poverty and the insecurely housed are not on the electoral register and don’t vote, the issues they face are less likely to be solved.
What can be done about this?
A group of civil society organisations who work with low voting demographics are calling on the Prime Minister to remove barriers by bringing in automatic voter registration and getting rid of photographic Voter ID.
Automatic rather than manual voter registration
Our system of manual individual registration is unusual amongst democracies, and Electoral Commission reports show that it is more of a barrier to some communities than others – evident from the demographic breakdown of who is more or less likely to be on the register. They estimated in 2023 that up to 8 million people were not correctly registered. Some groups – Black people, 16–24-year-olds, and people who rent from a Local Authority or Housing Association – had even seen a drop in registration rates since 2018. The system simply isn’t working. It has been labelled “both ineffective and inefficient” by a cross-party select committee of MPs.
Automatic voter registration could include being automatically added to the electoral register when you turn 16 and issued a National Insurance number. There are a number of ways this can be managed which enables proper data security and allows for anonymous voters in the same way the current system does. The good news is international evidence shows that this automatic process could save the Government money.
The removal of the requirement to show ID when voting
This was also the first national election where a photographic ID was required to vote. Despite a few proven cases of voter fraud, voters are now expected to show it when they vote or be turned away from the ballot box. A cross-party group of MPs have raised concerns that voter ID “disenfranchises more voters than it protects”.
At the May local elections, even Boris Johnson, the prime minister when the legislation was introduced came a cropper when he tried to use a piece of post, with no photo, to vote. But our former PM had the chance to head home and get his ID, before returning and putting his X in the box. For some people that is not an option. They don’t have the ID; they don’t have the time. Evidence from two local elections so far shows that this has proven a barrier to some of the same people as voter registration. We expect to see similar patterns once the data from the General Election has been analysed. If you know of people you work with who have been unable to vote due to the ID requirement (particularly where it relates to a protected characteristic or inequality, or where the rules were wrongly interpreted or enforced), law firm Hogan Lovells are seeking case studies. You can share them here voterid@hoganlovells.com
What can you do?
A group of civil society organisations have written to the Prime Minister asking him to remove these barriers to democratic participation. You can amplify the call by sharing it to your social media, but please also consider referencing these requests in your conversations with government. As a sector we can show that democratic participation underpins the changes our communities need.
