Who will voter ID hurt?

Political scientist Phil Cowley gives his views on the voter ID issue: ' It won't be as big a problem as the raw figs appear, because turnout is low anyway and the sort of people who vote in local elections are the sort who will either have ID or go back home to get it.  [I’m not so sure about that].

It will still be a problem, with multiple vox pops with disgruntled voters, and enough to create a storm. These will not all be left-leaning young people either; suspect plenty of pensioners will get caught out.

While I don't personally accept the arguments for voting ID (esp in a country without ID cards), they do not, to many voters, sound outrageous.  This is especially true of the "there are so few cases of it" claim, where the obvious "but how would you know?" retort works.

If the policy isn't changed before the General Election, it will be a much bigger problem then. It won't be changed before the General Election.

I do think this is being driven by perceptions of political advantage, rather than genuine concern about electoral integrity.  My suspicion (and here I really am just guessing) is that it may end up being much messier in partisan terms than people suspect; it would be ironic if lots of Conservative voters got stuffed by it.

It will work in all sorts of ways, including resources going towards ensuring voters have ID, that otherwise would be spent elsewhere. 11. One effect (ironically) might be to drive even more people towards postal votes.'