Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:18 pm on 9 November 2021.
Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. Can I just, before I get into my main summation, say that I attended Coleg Gwent yesterday in Blaenau Gwent, in the Member's consistency, and met a fairly substantial group of young people, and can I say how impressed I was by them? But, one of them sent me an e-mail, which I received this morning, and I'd just like to read this, because it answers some of the points raised.
'My name is Maddy Dhesi. I am 18 and from Wrexham and my first time voting was this May. If I had needed voter ID for my first time voting, I do not think I would have been able to vote. My provisional license application was the first official form I had ever filled out by myself. It got sent back four times and it took three months for me to eventually receive it. One of my teachers had to verify my identity...and funding the cost of a provisional license under the 16 year old’s national minimum wage of £4.20...meant I had to work a nine hour shift in order to afford a license. I live in a rural community which meant, if an electoral identity card scheme was in place, I would struggle to easily access this. All in all, voter ID will make voting harder when all the evidence of low turnout indicates the opposite needs to be done....Voter ID risks a new generation of voters being turned away from democracy.'