We use limited cookies
We use cookies where necessary to allow us to understand how people interact with our website and content, so that we can continue to improve our service.
View our privacy policy
Crowdfunder
We need your help to protect the voting rights of young people and marginalised communities
Democracy is the right to vote. And measures that – without good reason – remove or inhibit the right to vote are its enemy.
And this is what the new rules, requiring prescribed types of photo ID before you can vote, do. For no good reason, and at enormous public expense, they disenfranchise people – deprive people of their democratic rights.
And they must be challenged – before the next general election.
Good Law Project has obtained legal advice from a legal team led by a specialist King’s Counsel. That advice identifies that there is a sensible legal challenge to be brought to those rules. The precise prospects of success will depend on evidence that is still emerging. But the importance of the right to vote is such that measures that inhibit it cannot go unchallenged.
The Election Act 2022 provides a list of valid government-accepted photo IDs. This list has forms of ID targeted at the older generation, such as a 60+ Oyster Card. However, almost none are for young people, not even the Young Persons Railcard. The consequence will be to inhibit the right to vote for young people. Needless to say, it is young people who are least likely to vote for the Government. The measures will also have discriminatory effects on other people who the evidence shows are less likely to have photo ID.
Details
We will monitor the effects and impacts of these discriminatory provisions at the upcoming local elections. And then we will bring litigation to test the lawfulness of them.
Come the next General Election, no one should have their right to vote impeded.
10% of the funds raised will be a contribution to the general running costs of Good Law Project. It is our policy only to raise sums that we reasonably anticipate could be spent on the work we are crowdfunding for. However, if there is a surplus it will go to develop and support further work we do to fight for a better fairer future for all.
Crowdfunder Updates
-
20/05/2024
High Court refuses permission to challenge Voter ID rules
We are sorry to tell you the High Court has refused permission to bring our challenge to the Voter ID rules.
After we issued our claim, the government offered evidence – evidence it had not provided before – about how it assessed which forms of identification to include, which made our claim exceptionally difficult. That evidence ought to have been provided earlier and we will be asking the court to revise its decision on costs.
We remain determined to pursue all legal avenues to protect the right to vote – a right which the former minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said the government tried to restrict for its electoral advantage.
Read a more detailed update here.
-
01/03/2024
We've filed a claim with the court for judicial review
The Government has responded to the initial legal letter we submitted. You can read their response here. We believe they have failed to adequately explain how they took into account the impact of their voter ID requirements on disadvantaged groups, or properly looked into possible additional forms of ID that could be used. As a result, Alice, the claimant in the case, has filed a claim with the court to seek permission for a judicial review.
-
09/02/2024
We've launched first stage of a legal challenge
We have sent a pre-action letter to the Government regarding the potential unlawfulness of its response to the Electoral Commission’s report on the impact of voter ID requirements at the May 2023 local elections. We are supporting claimant Alice, whose disabilities present a direct barrier to her ability to provide the required voter ID.
This crowdfunder is now closed.
Thanks to the amazing support of Good Law Project supporters, we raised £60,138.94.
Disappointingly, the High Court refused permission to bring our challenge to the Voter ID rules.
You can read a detailed update here.
If you’d like to support our general work, you can do so here: