Electoral Fraud

Debate between Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen and Lord Maxton

Monday 12th September 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen]

Postal voting is incredibly useful for many people. It would be disastrous to get rid of it.

[Lord Maxton (Lab)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen]

We are pleased that Sir Eric Pickles has produced this report. It is now up to us to look at it and decide the way forward. We will be reporting back on it soon.

[Lord Maxton]

My Lords, is it not the case that the most obvious way to reduce electoral fraud across the board is the compulsory introduction of an ID card with smart card technology and an identity built in—either fingertip, eye or, preferably, genetic material at birth—and then that card has to be used before you can vote? Eventually, that will lead to electronic voting as well.

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen]

This is obviously one of the things that will be looked at following the report. We will report back further on better ways of making sure of people’s identity when they go to the polling station.