Reacting to the news that the UK Government plans to legislate to introduce a requirement for voters to show photo ID to vote, Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Jane Dodds MS said:
“Voting is a right that we all enjoy and the government is seeking to undermine that by introducing new obstacles which will inevitably drive turn out down.
“This will not strengthen democracy, it will simply disenfranchise more people at a time when we should be encouraging turnout.
“Requiring voters to show ID was trailed in 2018 across ten English counties and over 2,000 people were refused a vote with around 750 of them not returning to vote later on.
“There are many ways the UK Government can and should be strengthening democracy such as voting reform and lowering the voting age to 16.
“This is illiberal, unnecessary, unjust and will drive down turnout.
“The Welsh Government must not follow the UK Government on this issue.”
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