Tom Barton

Time for an explainer on how to get funding for a PhD in the UK (1/n)

Yes of course, and giving name and address was the system until 2023. The government have been very clear they would not revert to this, only expand the number of IDs that can be used.

Florian is absolutely correct, I guess I would say that. Evidence suggests that we don't see depressive effects in Europe is because, unlike the UK and US, they have compulsory ID which is provided at low or zero cost. It can then have wider electoral benefits esp. with registration

Do UK voters see a trade-off between electoral integrity and turnout? Jeffrey A. Karp argues that beliefs about fraud and ideology, not turnout concerns, best predict support for photo ID. Read OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/r2FnjwH

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @uoypolitics.bsky.social @sagepub.com #polsky

New research suggests voter ID law 'significantly reduces' turnout Campaigners warn the law is having a ‘damaging and disproportionate impact on our democracy’

Research on voter ID and election turnout authored by our academic, @tombarton.bsky.social, has been featured in a new article by @noahvickers.bsky.social in @standard.co.uk.web.brid.gy 🗳️🗂️

Read it here ⬇️

www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

New research suggests voter ID law 'significantly reduces' turnout Campaigners warn the law is having a ‘damaging and disproportionate impact on our democracy’

Some sunshine reading, I was interviewed about my recent @psrm.bsky.social paper about Voter ID in The Standard.
www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

The paper if you missed it the first time round
cup.org/420N1D4

New research suggests voter ID law 'significantly reduces' turnout Campaigners warn the law is having a ‘damaging and disproportionate impact on our democracy’

Some sunshine reading, I was interviewed about my recent @psrm.bsky.social paper about Voter ID in The Standard.
www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

Thank you Florian, and for your comments on an earlier version of it!

📣 CALLING ALL QUANT SOCIAL SCIENTISTS! 📣

Do you know of causally identified research that estimates the effect of higher education on political attitudes?

@elizabethsim0n.bsky.social and I are currently working on a meta-analysis on this question and we need your help!

📣Pub Alert! Here I causally identify (one of the only outside of the USA) a negative effect of a voter ID pilot scheme from 2018. This scheme was less restrictive than that used at the 2024 GE, implying a greater proportion of people were excluded from voting in June and a fairer system is needed.

🚨 EPOP 2025 Call for papers now open! 🚨

Please fill out this form before the end of April to submit your paper proposal forms.office.com/e/4wBNMq4qwi

Accepting presentations on all aspects of elections, public opinion and parties using all methods.

A very far cry indeed, it's genuinely wonderful to see hard work paying off like this, cardboard pizza boxes replacing cardboard dividers is the best part! Hopefully I'll get chance to return one day and see it for real, for all I know this could be a deep fake produced by 'Big Academia'.

Reminds of when I was applying for my PhD on the advanced quantitative methods steer the ERSC had, one condition was to use big data, turns out big data ≈ have statistical power at the aggregate level

Title page of our new paper, the abstract for which reads: The Elections Act 2022 requires voters to present photo identification at general elections in Great Britain and local elections in England. In this article, we use data from the British Election Study Internet Panel to identify who does and does not own the necessary photo documents and how this affected turnout in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, as well as the 2024 General Election. We find that around 5% of the voting-age population lack valid voter identification and that this is related to age, education, socio-economic status, and social grade. The data also give us a reliable indication of the party-political impact of the photo ID requirement. We find that conservative voters are more likely to hold valid photo identification than supporters of other parties. We also find that a small but significant proportion of registered voters (between 1.2% and 2.4%) reported either being turned away or dissuaded from voting at these elections because of the requirement.

📣 NEW PAPER KLAXON 📣

"Who lacks voter identification? The electoral implications of the Elections Act 2022"

With Ed Fieldhouse, @caprosser.bsky.social, @jack-bailey.co.uk, @jonmellon.bsky.social (@britishelectionstudy.com)

Just published at Parliamentary Affairs:

academic.oup.com/pa/advance-a...

Congrats Dr Kenn!

If you are a third year UG student or a Masters student, and are interesting in studying for a PhD in the UK, then (roughly speaking) you've got to decide whether you're going to apply for the main funding scheme for it over the next four months. Explanation follows... (1/n)

Thanks Ralph!

Excited to announce that from Monday I will be starting a Post-Doc at King's College on the ERC funded Advocacy in Digital Democracy project, led by @annerasmussen.bsky.social. A change of location (within London) and topic for me but something highly relevant to politics today

For the first time many voters in the UK had to show ID, did it affect turnout? We discuss below.

Ward-level estimates of registration and lack of ID (7th June edition) Proportion lacking ID by ward Ward,Ward code,Borough,Westminster seat,Seat code,Ward voting age population in census,Registered voters (estimated),Registered voters without ID (estimated),Avg Pct reg...

Data dump: using Survation's data on electoral registration and possession of qualifying photo ID, I've put together ward-level estimates (E&W only) of the proportion of registered electors who lack qualifying ID. You can find it here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... (1/n)

Apologies my mistake

So when will we know the *true* impact of this more restrictive voter ID? The next General Election...perhaps (10/10)

Yes voter ID won't be required in tomorrow's Welsh elections. But these are PCC elections, so with their extremely low turnout comparing with English PCC elections would be problematic (9/n)

Therefore, what will initial turnout figures tell us about this new ID law? Not a lot. As academic literature suggests this effect is likely to be particular to certain groups and a more in-depth analysis will be needed - watch this space 😜 (8/n)

Which is not conditional on anything else but requires significant input by the voter. This has, primarily, time costs but also knowledge and monetary costs. From local elections last year actual usage was significantly below expected usage. (7/n)

Other such alternatives include the over 60s Oyster, Disabled parking badge and EEA identity card. All of which cost or are conditional on something else. Therefore, the 2022 Election Act provides for the Voter Authority Certificate. (6/n)

Of course there are alternative IDs available. For disabled and older voters in London the next logical ID would be the Freedom Pass, outside of London it would be the equivalent bus pass. Which is fine if you have the ability or need to use such a pass. (5/n)

It is likely to be people who can: 1. Afford to go abroad 2. Afford a car 3. Allowed to drive a car

This indicates that, perhaps, several groups stand to be impacted by this new law. Poorer voters, younger voter and older voters. (4/n)

We know from pilot schemes that passport and driving licences are the most popular form of ID that was used www.electoralcommission.org.uk/research-rep.... So we can then think who is most likely to own such ID (3/n)