[LINK] ID card will be needed to vote, says UK election watchdog

[Adam Todd]

At 08:56 AM 1/05/2007, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
>ID card will be needed to vote, says UK election watchdog
>Use it to fix the bit that isn't broken...
>By John Lettice
>Monday 30th April 2007 11:38 GMT
>The Register
>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/30/younger_id_card_voting/
>
>Unexpected support for ID cards has come from 
>Electoral Commission chairman Sam Younger, who 
>has told the Times that photo ID should be 
>required at polling stations, and that if (or, 
>in the view of the current Government, when) ID 
>cards become compulsory they would "undoubtedly" 
>be applied in elections. "I think there’s a 
>very strong case for making sure we go down the 
>road of tightening up the identification of 
>polling station voting as well [as postal ballots]" he said.

Ahh just like Drivers Licences, there will be 
several million more voters voting in electronic 
elections than exist in the registered voting population.

Cool :)

And will they use the data from the ID cards to 
determine if EVERYONE has voted?

Does this mean the Electoral Commission will be 
able to cut its staff and budget?  After all, if 
the ID card is used for the purpose of 
determining whether an eligible person voted, 
then it means that people no longer have to 
register - update registration etc.

That means branch offices can be closed.  That 
will save millions a year in Rent, Carbon Foot 
prints from green houses gases of those staff 
traveling to work, tax payer funds being used to 
pay the staff, costs of electricity, no 
requirement for printing enrollment forms 
(massive saving), distribution of the forms, 
postage of the forms (gosh that's a HUGE saving!)

Won't need to employ someone to open the letters 
and enter the data.  No one will be needed to answer phones about how to enrol.

Gosh, the saving must be in the tens of millions a year.

What a great idea!

I'm all for an ID card reducing the cost to Tax 
payers by sacking hundreds of staff, closing down 
offices that won't be needed, and halting the 
purchase and upgrades on hundreds of computers that won't be required any more.

YES!

It gets my vote!







It also means thatr