Disabled Trans Woman Who Says She’s Been ‘Denied Vote’ Due to Photo ID Rules Launches Legal Challenge

A woman who says she has been blocked from voting due to the Government’s new voter ID rules is launching a legal challenge against the Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove over the policy.

Legal campaign group Good Law Project (GLP) says that Alice’s disabilities will prevent her from getting photo ID this year, due to the additional burdens it places on vulnerable voters. Alice, whose identity is being protected, is arguing that the Government should extend the forms of permitted ID before “potentially millions” are turned away at the General Election this year. 

Alice suffers from anxiety and depression to such an extent that she is on the highest level of Universal Credit and is unable to work, the legal letter notes. She has never had a passport, and says her lack of photographic ID is directly linked to her disabilities and her status as a trans woman. 

Research by academics at the Universities of York and Birmingham found that trans people expressed “significant anxiety” about voter ID requirements, particularly due to fears around their ID being challenged if voting in person — for example if it references a former gender identity. A quarter of respondents said they were less likely to vote in a future general election as a result.

The letter to the Government notes that Alice was “disappointed” that Secretary of State Michael Gove had ruled out expanding the list of acceptable forms of ID despite Electoral Commission warnings, and had ruled out monitoring the impact of Voter ID past the end of the decade. 

A report from the Electoral Commission following last May’s local elections found “people with lower incomes, with disabilities and from minority ethnic backgrounds “faced greater problems”’ with the requirements.

An estimated 14,000 people were turned away. However, the true figure is likely to be much higher, since many people were reminded of the ID requirement by “greeters” outside the polling station and then turned away before they were formally recorded as lacking ID. 

The Commission said voter ID was likely to have a much “larger impact” at the general election and recommended the Government make changes at the “earliest opportunity”. 

According to the Electoral Commission, three per cent of non-voters said they did not vote because they did not have the requisite ID last May. But the figure was substantially higher for disabled voters who reported  being ‘limited a lot’ by their disability, at nearly one in ten (9%). The Government’s own figures via Ipsos have the figures at four per cent and seven per cent respectively. 

Non-profit group Democracy Volunteers deployed more than 150 observers across 118 of the 230 councils holding elections in England on 4 May last year, finding that 1.2% of those attending polling stations were turned away because they lacked the relevant ID. Again this would equate to tens of thousands in a General Election. They found that the majority were ‘non-white passing’. 

Moreover, polling for Byline Times found that around ten million eligible voters