Electoral Commission investigates practicalities and costs of introducing electoral ID cards

From the tender information published on the Electoral Commission’s website:

In January 2014 the Electoral Commission published its review of electoral fraud vulnerabilities in the UK.

One of our recommendations was that electors in Great Britain should be required to present an acceptable form of photographic identification (ID) prior to being issued with a ballot paper and voting at polling stations.

We recommended that a proof of identity scheme should be in place to be used by no later than for the 2019 European Parliamentary and English local government elections.

We said that we would consult widely and work with others to identify and develop a proportionate and accessible scheme for verifying the identity of electors at polling stations. Such a scheme must:

• Be sufficiently robust to verify electors’ identities.
• Be sufficiently accessible to electors.
• Provide for electors to obtain an alternative form of ID (i.e. an electoral identity card) specifically for the purpose of voting if they do not have access to any other specified form of ID.
• Be cost-effective and affordable.

We require a supplier to estimate the cost of designing, producing and distributing an electoral identity card for use by voters at polling stations across Great Britain. As well as an estimate of setup costs, the supplier will be required to estimate the annual running costs of administering an electoral ID card scheme.