“According to Section 1 of the Personalausweisgesetz (PAuswG for short), every German over the age of 16 is required to have an identity card or passport.”
Getting a “Perso” for a teenager on their 16th birthday is a really big deal. From that moment on you are almost an adult. And in Germany you really need it for everything because it also shows your current place of residence on it.
That’s completely normal here and it can’t be compared at all. When we have elections, we will receive a voting card by post which we must then show at the polling station. That’s all.
I think I never had to show my ID when voting, the voting card is usually sufficient. But hey, maybe I got lucky, or they knew me etc. But it wouldn’t be a big deal because everyone has an ID anyway. (Because we are required by law to have one.)
I never said that voters in Germany had to show their ID in order to vote but carry on…the rest of Livvy’s post just goes to show how unexceptional/normal it is to mandate ID cards.
In the UK you don’t even have to show your voting card. Just give your name and address without being required to prove either or have your voting card with you
So you’re suggesting that an unscrupulous person or persons with a very basic list of people and addresses (such as were available in the days of the phone book) could vote fraudulently? Surely there’s a simple way to safeguard against this?
None that I can think of. The problem you reference is probably overblown anyway, I mean surely people are always who they say they are? When did we become so untrusting.
Lord Mandelson, who was a cabinet minister under Blair, pointed out he is the only Labour leader to have won an election in the past 47 years.
And listing Labour’s performances in the past 11 general elections, he emphasised the point by saying: “Lose, lose, lose, lose, Blair, Blair, Blair, lose, lose, lose, lose.”
Given that the common consensus is that Labour does best among the younger voters but they are also the demographic least likely to vote surely Labour would support mandatory voting? The only way you can do that is with voter ID.
Labour should, surely, be pushing mandatory voting, voter ID and PR but they’re not advocating any of them. The opposite.
Of course. Then it’s a conversation. But in real life there has been something like 2 convictions for voter fraud and nothing that could have possibly swung an election.
Requiring voter ID is trying to solve a problem that simply doesn’t exist. Right now the negatives massively outweigh the positives.
For all those loses, the left of the left account for two? And one of them was the closest they came outside the Blair years.
The fact is post Blair, Labour have had leftist leaders and centrists. And they’ve all been defeated. The current leader, who was supposed to be a return to sensible centrism looks fucking worse than Corbyn right now.
I think it’s everyone’s civic duty to vote but we can’t be mandated to vote for someone, hence the need for a none of the above option, which some posters I recall seem to think we already have
I firmly believe a Labour Party lead by David Milliband or Andy Burnham would have been in power now and Brexit would not have happened. They keep picking the wrong leader.
I disagree. Andy Burnham would be my choice, but he’d be fighting exactly the same rigged game as his predecessors. Scotland has gone, the Tories keep fucking over Labour seats, and there simply aren’t enough seats in play for Labour to win a majority.
They need to swallow their fucking pride, get on the case with an electoral pact and force through PR or AV once in power.
Labour lose because they actively compete for votes with the Lib Dem’s and Greens. The Tories pretty much have the right to themselves.
There has been research into this topic and as far as I am aware, none of it has found evidence of widespread fraud or called for voter ID. This research would have had to address the ‘lack of evidence’ in order to be considered credible.
Pretty much any group that has complex needs, refugees, ex-offenders, care leavers, victims of crime/abuse, those who are homeless or have severe mental health issues etc or some combination of all these.
Yet but we still get plenty of underage people buying booze or having other people buy it for them…
Sadly they could not even coordinate to stop a hard Brexit.
It was clear as day the cooperation needed to occur between Labour and Lib dems. But Jo Swinson and Jeremy Corbyn could not work together.
It was one of the biggest failures of Brexit. Especially with the speaker on side. That failure to work together in the face of falling off a cliff was astonishing.
Just as bad or worse than agreeing to an election.
The opposition MPs fucked up royally. Even when for the national good they could not form a pact. Although I fully agree they should work together for PR I doubt they have the will, mutual trust and respect required is not there.
And in Germany you really need it for everything because it also shows your current place of residence on it.
