Sir – In The Oxford Times of May 13, prominent Greens appear three times (two reports and one letter) complaining about irregularities or abuse involving students (and perhaps others) during the election in East Oxford, with Sushila Dhall pointing out that “You do not need a polling card to vote”.
Indeed not, and most other Europeans are amazed that we do not need an ID card with a photograph to vote. Yet it is Green Party policy not to have ID cards.
Super-duper top-security ID cards seem to be something the country cannot afford at the moment, but very many people have a driving licence which in practice they use as an ID card. Those unfortunate people without one (including many Greens, I would have thought) ought to have the opportunity of obtaining a “non-driving licence” issued to them by the same agency, with the same identity checks.
To my mind, this is the cheapest way of solving the problem, and I suggested it to Andrew Smith MP long ago.
I have since learnt that this is exactly what is done in some parts of the USA, where proper ID is (not surprisingly, really) required in order to vote in an election.
Roger Moreton, East Oxford
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