Why has this become an issue? It seems an obvious way to make sure people are correctly voting in their districts and not voting twice. I also get the gist of the “against” side: poor folks are less likely to have IDs, so this is a way to make sure less of them vote.
So why don’t they have IDs? Is it the access issue? Poor people may not want to stand in line for an ID? They may not be able to get to the ID office (DMV, etc)? Or they may not be able to pay for processing fees?
I cannot imagine this would affect a lot of people, nevermind dramatically affect vote counts. Plus it appears to have easy solutions (get an ID when you sign up for social services, for example). Then again, that might be a rub “who pays for these extra ID steps?”
A friend told me a darker side. Poor people (in his case read: minorities) want to be off the grid. They’re afraid if they apply for IDs, then the authorities will know where they are. As poor folks, they may have criminal warrants, past child support payments, credit collections, liens, etc, which are easy to ignore if no one knows who you are. So, they’ll never get IDs.
(Why am I picturing a DMV computer flashing red, blaring klaxxons, and doors locking?)
Because the methods we already have to do this are quite adequate, and the new laws would prevent more legitimate votes than they would stop illegitimate ones.
So you want to charge people ~$20 plus transportation costs and four hours away from work in line at the DMV for the right to vote? And that’s a good thing how? What problem is a voter ID supposed to solve? I haven’t seen that one answered with anything but “too many poor (Democrat) voters”.
Texas has a catch 22 in both driver’s licenses and state ID cards, if you are under 18 you do not have to prove residency, but over 18 and you do have to prove residency.
As an unemployed layabout this is a non-trivial barrier, in fact many working people are in non traditional arrangements like paying some to rent a room in their house or to avoid child support so even they cannot prove residency.
I gave up and just got a US passport.
Hmm they now allow you to do an affidavit of residence if you have no documents, I do not remember being offered that option at the DMV at all. Note that alswo:
Before you can propose a solution, I think it is reasonable that you demonstrate that there is a problem I’m not aware of any convincing evidence that our current voter registration system is deficient.
Many states already have “voting IDs” that come in the mail before each election. Saying “you have to bring it” would be a trivial request for any voter.
Speaking of vote count… You will note that in the PA case, the anti group identified hundreds of thousands of registered voters who would need to get ID. The pro side did not identify even one instance of voter impersonation. Not one.
The real question is… why has voter impersonation become such an issue when nobody has evidence that it happens?
Quite simply, the Twenty-Fourth amendment states that no person can be denied the right to vote for failure to pay a poll tax.
If one is required to show state-issued ID in order to exercise the right to vote, and acquiring such an ID requires paying a fee to the state (which it does), then it is a poll tax and therefore unconstitutional.
You know what? Even the most diehard opponent of voter ID laws would probably have no problem with them IF the ID in question were a)free, and b)relatively easy to get. Instead, in a lot of the states that have put voter ID laws in place, they generally require either a fee, or foundational documents that cost money to get, or a trip to a distant DMV office with ridiculous hours of operation. Make it possible to get them at the post office, make it possible to get them with maybe a combination of a birth certificate (any version, not just a raised-seal one) and utility bills in your name to your listed address, or a lease agreement with your name and signature on it.
Well, it would probably get you around the poll tax provision, provided that the free ids were actually available to everyone. There are other federal laws about voting rights that such a plan might run afoul of, depending on all sorts of things.
Wisconsin? Where state policy was to not inform people that they could get their id for free? Implementation matters.
Is that an exhaustive list of what would be acceptable? Because that would probably make ID available to fewer people, not more.
The problem is that an identity system based on owning the right pieces of paper can’t ever be universal and secure. On one end we have things like REAL ID and closed records laws making it very difficult to enter into the system from scratch, and on the other end we have voter ID laws saying that you aren’t a full citizen unless you can get ID.
But WHY? Why can’t you get an ID card just by presenting a birth certificate which can be verified? The state department verifies all birth certificates before issuing passports, why can’t state ID departments?
Even if you could, you still have to get the birth certificate somewhere (babies don’t pop out of the uterus clutching their own birth certificates, obviously), so the same problem is going to come up.
The number of people effected will be significantly reduced, about the only people running into the no-birth cert issue are home births whose parents never filed for one.
Generally the case against voter ID is because it is a blatant political campaign to disenfranchise voters and make it more difficult for people to vote.
There really is no evidence voter ID is even needed so it’s a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. It deverts money and resources that could be used on actual problems.
If we decide to introduce voter ID it should be introduced after a major election not immediately before it. The ID should be free and easy to get.
After the election I doubt we will see any voter ID laws being passed for another 1.5 years because the goal is to make it last minute and difficult to navigate so they can stop people from voting.
So a state passes a voter id law but offers free ids through the DMV or some other state office. But getting an id requires documents which a person may or may not have and which might cost money and/or to obtain. Objections fly.
So do states have to offer free birth certificates? Maybe that isn’t good enough since not every citizen was born in the US. Maybe the federal government must provide free naturalization documents to immigrants?
Proof of residence might require a utility bill. Maybe states should be responsible for paying for a utility account so everyone can get a voter id?
Where do we draw the line?
My issue is that there is always some cost (in time and/or money) to vote. I pay the cost of paper, ink, envelope, and stamp to be able to vote absentee and whatever time it takes to complete my ballot. My mother pays gasoline and time to vote in person. Neither of us consider these costs to be anything remotely like a poll tax.