There are between 6 million and 9 million people missing from electoral registers or incorrectly registered to vote. About 60% of people think, that the registration process happens automatically and that they do not need to do anything in order to vote. Having automatic registration to vote is a good idea for many reasons.
Compulsory photo ID at polling stations was not in the Conservative manifesto, however the call for “voter identification” was. The fact that the manifesto did not specify photo ID means that we should “allow non-photographic” ID as in many other countries. Requiring photo ID will make it harder for people to vote. This is why automatic registration makes sense.
There is one form of voter ID eminently suitable for the purpose, this is the official poll card. Making poll cards an acceptable form of ID is proposed in both Amendments 6 and 7.
Postal Votes
If we stop the system of automatic postal votes, trying to get people to renew their postal vote applications will favour the richest parties with the biggest databases, which are more able to contact people by post and ask them to re-register.