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@luckytran@med-mastodon.comIn the UK they are stopping people who are wearing a mask from voting. It’s unacceptable to exclude high risk people from democracy.
@luckytran
Considering how few people still mask it really shouldn’t be a problem to step outside for a quick check. I‘m fuming.
@MissScott01 @luckytran my thought exactly. "No Guidance.."... What a nonsense excuse.
@luckytran Wow, that sucks.
I was asked to lower my mask temporarily while they checked my ID, which I figured was probably fairly low risk, so I did.
But if I were immunosuppressed I'm sure I'd have felt differently. That's appallingly discriminatory.
@luckytran I was lucky, they didn’t make me take my mask off to prove my identity at my polling station :/
@luckytran
I sincerely hope this is a prank, joke or satire. Please tell me it's one of those!
@luckytran @earthmothering9 gee - feel rather fortunate to be in a country where you can turn up to a polling place in your running gear with no ID, announce your name and address, and then vote.
@sylmobile @luckytran and leave with a democracy sausage too
@luckytran
Denied a vote due to immunosuppression. The Tories, as I've known, are the slightly-less queerphobic (still bad) equivalent of the states' GOP.
Both's BS needs to be offed. Now.
@luckytran The race to fascism between the UK and US is amazing. Thatcher came before Reagan, but blatant voter suppression in the US preceded it in the UK.
@luckytran the world world has gone off it’s moral compass axis!
@luckytran not sure people today are on a mask because of #covid or any germs.. or simply they are caught up with life they never had. I witness #mask wearing effect just few months before 2020, I was in Taiwan mid 2019. I was amazed how many people were in mask there... they are in mask for the last 10 years, they unable to let it go and that effect is post 6 months shocks.. it is 2 years shocks now. use common sense, you have everything to protect yourself without nothing and don't lost that.
@luckytran In Australia there is no requirement for photo id to vote and voter fraud is negligible
#FBPE @luckytran There's no way you'd catch me in a polling station, because covid. So I voted by post.
@luckytran Why does anyone need to see your face to cast a *secret* ballot? 
The secret bit refers to how you mark your paper, not whether you turn up.
Recording that you've been issued a paper has been standard practice for a very long time. It's how they make sure each person votes only once and is the main mechanism for preventing voter fraud.
@JetlagJen @luckytran I don't know if that's accurate.
In the U.S., "secret ballot" means no one knows how or for whom you voted.
Umm... that's what I said?
UK voting is always a mark on a paper. If nobody knows how you mark your paper, nobody knows which candidate or party you voted for.
@MugsysRapSheet In theory, to verify that your face matches the photo ID you brought that's now required to vote.
@scottishwildcat Simply pulling down your mask for 2 seconds should be sufficient. If they are saying "No" at the door, that's not the same thing.
@MugsysRapSheet Quite agree.
Do not let the tories back into office.
Do not let the tories back into councils.
That is the focus today.
Do not let them back in.
Throw them out.
Well DONE~!!!! OMG You guys!
What a way to ring in the new ERA!
Britain Did It!
Now On To Westminster!
@luckytran
Especially as most of them won't vote tory.
@luckytran
I was masked, they didn't say anything to me. Think they were just glad to see a voter!
This situation is nuts, but I am heartened that so many of you still wear masks. 
@luckytran this is clearly bollocks though right.
@luckytran I wore a mask, just lowered it for ID moment, then back on.
@luckytran Can citizens vote by mail there?
@luckytran
There are completely transparent masks available. Good for ID-situations.
Having said that, election officers could probably find a solution for this case. For example: Go outside, so the voter can take off their mask for IDing. Then accompany them back inside.
Medical question: Is there a health risk to the exhaler in exhaling for 2 seconds without a mask?
@newstik @luckytran I would imagine that taking your mask off even for a second might pose risks of contaminating the mask.
@nina_kali_nina @luckytran The whole point of the mask is to be contaminated. It catches the things you don't want to pass on to others and that you don't want to inhale. If it works as intended, the mask is probably the most contaminated piece of your clothing.
@newstik @luckytran that's not what I mean. Imagine you take the mask off for a few seconds, and someone sneezes nearby. Insides of the mask will be contaminated, and a clean mask will be needed, otherwise immunocompromised person might get SERIOUSLY ill.
@nina_kali_nina @luckytran I think you misunderstand what masks can do and what the risks are.
Yes, I absolutely think people said be wearing masks a lot more.
But if you're *that* immunocompromised that you're afraid of someone sneezing while you're changing your mask, you would probably not wear the kind of mask we see in the picture.
@nina_kali_nina @newstik @luckytran
Not medically trained. However my understanding is that the mask will trap infectious particles from either direction, and they will then generally stay trapped. So if I have to remove one in a place where I believe the air isn't clean enough to breathe I inhale, take off mask holding my breath, replace mask and exhale deeply to replace room air with lung air before I inhale again. Don't seem to have caught anything while following this practice.
@luckytran Can they unmask to show their face, and then put the mask back? Like the banks were doing here in the US?
This is exactly what is supposed to happen. I don't know why it went wrong in this instance.
@luckytran we were lucky - our polling station was very quiet and the officer presiding took us outside to see our faces without our ffp masks. But it could easily have gone the other way, and my partner had a solicitor number ready to go.
@Lizzie @luckytran I held my breath, but I was not happy to be asked to remove my mask. It's all just evil.
@luckytran jfc, that’s dystopian
@luckytran the Tories knew what they were doing with this Voter Suppression.
Do we thank the #GOP for that one? They are as thick as thieves, only the last week that atrocity of a man DeSantis was lunching with Tories over here. Wanker....
@Lazarou @luckytran Yeah, please don't let US conservatives get the idea that they can suppress the liberal vote by prohibiting masking!
@luckytran Yes, I was asked to remove mine. I held my breath and complied. I know they're only obeying orders but I made it pretty clear what I thought of it.
J
F
C!
I've already done mine by postal (have done for years) but this makes me want to wander down to mine and see if they turn *me* (mid-forties, 5'11" male) away for wearing my mask.
I *rather suspect* not.
@neonsnake @luckytran They’ll turn you away because you’re down on the register as a postal voter 
@luckytran Very sad!!! Can you find a mask with transparent area…. Amazon has lots of choices, called visible expressions masks….
@revk @luckytran not important to the torys, so they won't give a damn. vile disgusting and wrong!
@luckytran "papers please"
This is unacceptable.
@luckytran are there no absentee ballots in the U.K? I haven't voted in person in years.
(she/her) @nddentico Yes, we can get a postal vote.
@agvbergin @nddentico we shouldn't have to though.
@luckytran Yes, it's appalling. Our equalities law includes an anticipatory duty, so this should have been thought of in advance everywhere.
Thankfully not happening to everyone: some people are being accommodated by having voter ID checked in the fresh air outside polling stations. If you can, insist on this as a reasonable adjustment.