5 Isle of Wight residents were stopped from voting in the Wootton Bridge by-election because they had no photo ID on them.
The by-election was the 1st time photo ID was needed to fill a vacancy on the Isle of Wight Council since the rules were changed by central government earlier this year.
The requirement for photo ID to be brought along to the polling station was introduced in the hope it would prevent voter fraud.
Residents of Wootton Bridge went to the polls to elect someone to represent them after the resignation of disgraced former councillor Daryll Pitcher, who is currently in jail for historic child sex abuse offences.
Those who turned up to the polling station without a valid photo ID — passport, driving licence or concessionary bus pass — were refused a ballot paper and could not vote.
After the votes were counted, and the Liberal Democrat’s Sarah Redrup was declared the winner, the Isle of Wight Council confirmed it did have to stop some members of the public from voting.
A spokesperson confirmed 5 electors were refused a ballot paper due to having no voter ID or they produced an invalid ID.
A further 3 residents were initially turned away for having no ID but later returned with an acceptable form and voted.
Fewer than 1,000 votes were cast overall, with only a 35% turnout – 4% down on the May 2021 election.
A potential 2,830 residents in the Wootton Bridge ward could have voted.
Why is this ignorance news?
Fascist council rules about voting ID stopped these people’s right to vote. Voting is supposed to be anonymous and private. It is not anyone’s business who you are or who you vote for. Just leaves more room for corruption and fixed voting. What they can’t work out is, it’s THEIR losses stopping people voting
Showing Voter ID does not reveal how you voted ! Also, it’s not a Council rule it’s a government one.
Still scummy Tory
You have no idea what your talking about, voting is anonymous and private, no one is stood on your shoulder when you make your cross, the only people who kick off on these matters is because cannot double vote using different aliases like happened in tower hamlets a few years ago, its not council rules but national rules that have been in for over a year, if you do not have photo ID you can get a free one from the council unless you have an identity to hide.
Well… you can get a “free” one as-in paid from our taxes 😀 hence need to increase taxes 😉
Tory voter in I see
That’s literally Tories in Westminster that created this rule. Nothing to do with local council.
Government rules and the Law, not “council rules”.
The “rules” check whether you are who you say you are when you turn up to vote. Who you vote for is still anonymous and the fact you voted has always been recorded.
The rule was introduced by the Tories as the thought it would put young people off voting and favour the fogies who vote for them. Utterly backfired as most young people cary ID and it was the codgers who were caught out.
Ludicrous thing to say. When entering the polling station the first thing you are required to do is give your name so that it can be identified on the electoral register and crossed out. It has NEVER been anonymous and IS still private. Have you ever voted before?
They were probably the sheep conservative voters…
research by the Electoral Commission shows that around 3.5 million citizens (7.5% of the electorate) do not have access to photo ID.If voter identification requirements were restricted to passports or driving licences, around 11 million citizens (24% of the electorate) could potentially be disenfranchised.
I.D. is NOT restricted to Passports and Driving Licences. You can apply for a Voter I.D. and you are covered that way.
I don’t have any sympathy with these
so-called ‘disenfranchised’ as this had been in the news for AGES!
Well can’t say it hasn’t been advertised!
Totally ridiculous, photo id or no vote ….no one can complain …..
How do we know they are islanders if they haven’t provided the photo ID. They might have been skewing the results all those years! ;))) /jk
No sympathy for them. It was widely publicised that photo ID was needed!!!!!
Why bother voting.
All Parties don’t care for the people of the country, they are only concerned
about lining their own pockets.