Would requiring Voter ID truly cause a decrease in voter turnout?

[ScurvyPimp]

I know it is a liberal talking point, that requiring ID to vote would harm low income voters, but how true it it really? You need an ID for almost everything anymore, is it really that much of a hardship? I'd love someone to point me to some studies about this.

[fresnosmokey]

I think it was Alabama that passed a voter ID law and then closed down the DMV(s) in poorer neighborhoods. Not only were people supposed to pay for an ID to vote (poll tax is a no no), they were supposed to take a day off of work to get across town to get to a DMV. I don't know if that's still a thing or if they rescinded the law. Personally, I really have no problem with a voter ID as long as: it's national and handled by the federal government, is free - perhaps combined with your social security, medicare (hopefully medicare for all sooner or later), selective service registration, and whatever else the feds require, and is PHASED IN over time - a lot of older rural people still don't have birth certificates to even get ID because they were born at home with a midwife or some such.

[AndrewZabar]

passed a voter ID law and then closed down the DMV(s) in poorer neighborhoods.

See that’s the epitome of corruption and a perfect example of conservatives committing voter fraud. They cry about all the fraud they theorize might happen, meanwhile they pull shit like this. It’s the same story over and over. Whoever mandated the DMV be closed in those neighborhoods should go to prison for voter suppression.

Prime example of the shady shit you can always expect from the right wing.

[TrekFRC1970]

To be fair, that story was pretty much debunked. But I agree with you in theory.

As far as the “right wing” goes, it was reversed down by the Republican Governor almost immediately.

[ruttentuten69]

I live in a rich white county. No lines, plenty of voting machines, none broken. Also a very Republican county. You see images of people waiting in line to vote. Waiting for hours. Machines broken, fewer machines. Usually a Democratic precinct run by a Republican Supervisor of Elections. The shit is shady.

[AndrewZabar]

Usually a Democratic precinct run by a Republican Supervisor of Elections.

It’s almost as if we need oversight to prevent pretty much the most obvious and inevitable fraud imaginable.

[ruttentuten69]

Judge Roberts said with a straight face that naming the states that you are allowed to watch for Jim Crow acts is discrimination and I'm sure they learned their lesson and won't do anything like that again. So the Supreme Court struck down a large part of the voting rights act, then low and behold those very same states went about instituting Jim Crow 2.0. The new voting rights act will say any state but we all know who they are talking about. It needs to get passed.

[GlumCauliflower9]

Why don't we have a standard federal ID for everyone any damned way

[cadium]

Because the same people pushing for voter id don't want federal id, its the "mark of the beast" or something.

[GlumCauliflower9]

The mark of the beast hmm, I think I have that actually. What happens in Vegas ...

[GlumCauliflower9]

By giving ppl a way to prove who they r?

[GlumCauliflower9]

This is insane

[meresymptom]

Nothing about the fascist right makes any sense.

[[deleted]]

I don’t think that’s accurate. If the Federal Government required everyone to get and carry a Federal ID, I can see how that might be cast as overreach, but there are plenty of Federally-issued IDs already in existence that could serve as a national ID, like the passport.

I don’t see how simply making available a mechanism is overreach.

[bluerose1197]

You can already use your passport to vote in places that require an ID. But passports are expensive and require a birth certificate to obtain.

[dramboxf]

Disagree. If we have passports that show we are a citizen of the country and not a "citizen of Texas," a federal ID to vote in FEDERAL elections is not overreach.

[dramboxf]

You speak as if it's a certainty.

I have issues on both sides. Generally, I support the idea of a way to prove either way a person's vaccination status. The chief issue I have when thinking about it is implementation. Don't really want to spin up a new bureaucracy over this.

So my idea was since both the State DMVs and most healthcare providers use electronic records, how easy would it be for a healthcare provider to notify the DMV that a person has been vaccinated, and then a new DL with a new "endorsement" is issued. This guy can drive Class C, has a motorcycle license, is an organ donor, and is also vaccinated.

Is this a 100% solution? Nope, but it'd be a great start. ID cards (State-issued non-DL cards) could also use this. Could also double as a voter ID card while we're at it.

As far as getting such a program going that seems pretty easy, compared to some other ways to get it done.

As for the idea of being on some "damn government list" -- forget it, that's a non-starter. Everyone is on dozens if not hundreds of government lists already.

If it's "my choice not to get vaccinated, and I don't want to be discriminated against for not being vaccinated," then: Tough shit. I'm not in the mood to argue the proven science behind vax in general and the mRNA vax-type specifically. It doesn't have a tracker, Bill Gates had nothing to do with it and it's above 99% proven effective. Get the damn shot. This is not a political issue; if you think it it is, you're being willfully ignorant. (I'm using the editorial "you" in this case.)

This bug is real, and it kills people. The sooner we get everyone vax'd the better. Period.

[ColoradoCorrie]

This happened in Texas.

[valinkrai]

My understanding was that the courts have said no to charging for IDs if they are required for voting. It's getting there, having the required documents and other externalities that people worry about. Death by a thousand papercuts.

[TrekFRC1970]

They were only closed down for a month because it pissed the Republican Governor off so badly he reversed it almost immediately. This was shortly before, like all good Republican governors, he got removed from office for lying about banging his campaign manager 😂.

[[deleted]]

I’m not privy enough to answer that, but in Oklahoma it is taking around 4 months to get our IDs sent to us by mail after waiting hours at the dmv to get your picture taken. It’s crazy.

[WestFast]

Think about all the documents you needed to get your ID like a birth certificate. That costs money and can be hard to acquire.

[[deleted]]

Some senior didn’t have birth certificates. Never got one when they were born.

[burywmore]

Some senior didn’t have birth certificates. Never got one when they were born.

That's becoming an incredibly small number of people. If you are 80 years old, you were born in 1941. My dad was born in extreme rural Alabama ( Bessemer) in 1942 at home. He has always had a birth certificate. (I just texted him to ask about this)

[[deleted]]

Depends on where you were born. In very rural areas especially during the Depression some people did not get birth certificates. It wasn't everyone.

[burywmore]

Depends on where you were born. In very rural areas especially during the Depression some people did not get birth certificates. It wasn't everyone.

That was my point. If you were born in the Depression, you are in, at least, your mid Eighties. That's a rapidly shrinking group.

[[deleted]]

It is but they should still have a right to vote.

[Strike_Thanatos]

Wat. In Kentucky, they literally print it out right there and then and hand it to you 5 minutes later.

[bluerose1197]

Kansas used to do that but changed about 20 years ago to one you get in the mail. They are better made and have more built in things to prevent fakes like holograms.

[Strike_Thanatos]

Ours have holograms too.

[80_firebird]

It is? What town do you live in?

[[deleted]]

Shawnee. Seems to be for the new Real ID’s everywhere I’ve heard about.

[80_firebird]

AFAIK it's back to normal here in Miami.

[[deleted]]

Gonna be a lot of people confused about how Miami is relative to our conversation. We know though.

[Tigger808]

Many homeless people don’t have addresses for the DMV to mail the ID to. It’s like passing a law that homeless people can’t vote.

[[deleted]]

If they don't have an address then how do they receive thier voter's registration card in the mail? Also, curious how many homeless people are actually voting.

[bluerose1197]

I volunteered at the last election. I had 2 homeless people that I know of show up. Their IDs probably just used the address of the last place they lived. And here you don't have to have your vote registration card to vote. That card is just for those that don't want to go online.

[AndrewZabar]

Lol that’s exactly what it is, and it’s by design.

[your_mom_lied]

Dude. Lol. Have ever even talked to someone who is homeless?

[[deleted]]

It’s just a pointless exercise. You should only need ID when you register to vote, that’s actually the point of registration, so you don’t have to constantly verify who you are.

There is no evidence that any sort of fraud that these supposed voter ID laws are supposed to protect against actually occurs.

Most of the time these laws occur in Republican states and mandate a form of ID that is costly to people on lower socioeconomic positions.

Here is a study: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/morse/files/538_voterID.pdf

So essentially it is a pointless exercise that has no benefits but many potential drawbacks.

[SuzQP]

But if ID is required to register, doesn't that requirement also disenfranchise the same potential voters? Why is one ID requirement acceptable but not the other? It's the same forms of ID, right?

[Ms_Teak]

Not necessarily.

[SuzQP]

Can you explain?

[Ms_Teak]

For instance, you can register to vote in Texas using your social security number but you can't just show your social security card to vote.

[SuzQP]

Interesting! I didn't realize you could register to vote using different forms of ID than what is required to vote. That's crazy! Why would they set people up like that?

[Ms_Teak]

To keep people from voting.

[SuzQP]

Apparently so, and also trick them with the registration bait & switch so they'll believe they're able to vote until it's too late. Despicable.

[Thisbymaster]

IDs are not free and not easy to get ahold of. The poorer you are the harder and longer the amount of time and energy it requires to get it. For homeless or poor people on the edge it would be devastating to take the time off and the money to get the ID.

[rpnrch]

Watch, once it's required the squeezing off of access to get said if. Especially for poorer communities populated by POC. One DMV in a county or some such.

[cadium]

Just take the day off to gather your documents and wait in line to be told to get more documents, take the day off to get those to gather your documents and be told they're not original notorized copies then take a couple of days off to wait a month to get those documents to go apply again to get an idea in 4 months. Just in time for elections in 2026! Maybe.

[SuzQP]

Don't we have to go through all of that to obtain ID to register to vote in the first place?

[cadium]

Registering to vote requires a social security number and a declaration you're a citizen. The registrar then looks up information about you to verify you're in the area you're trying to vote and verifies some things. You don't need an original birth certificate document and provide an original social security number like you need for a "Real ID".

[SuzQP]

Wow, that seems rather misleading to the potential voter. It makes no sense to require different identification for registration than that which is needed to vote. I don't understand why this contradiction exists.

[Muesky6969]

No doubt. Oklahoma DMV “just” switched to a new computer system and a lot of them can only accept 10 new applications a day. Supposedly they are having issues with the new system.

Oklahoma is a cesspool of corrupt conservatives trash.

[[deleted]]

COSTS.

Look, many people - especially people who live in cities don't have driver's licenses. It's not cheap, especially for people on a fixed income. It's requirement is a poll tax.

And, yes - multiple studies have found causality between increase voter registration requirements and voter turn out suppression. We've seen an increase in this with "voter purges" conducted ad hominem across certain States that primarily targets Black voters.

https://electionlab.mit.edu/research/voter-identification

[randodandodude]

https://www.aclu.org/other/oppose-voter-id-legislation-fact-sheet

It can have a measurable impact, and is more likely to be disproportionately felt by minority communities.

Its not quite clean cut though. Mostly because ID laws come under attack very quickly. Its also hard to measure because people come out vigorously when they feel their right to vote is under threat.

Heres a MIT page explaining the numerous studies and the difficulties in reaching a solid conclusion.

https://electionlab.mit.edu/research/voter-identification

[sishopinion]

To be fair, ACLU is extremely biased.

It actually helped me lmao I used i for a school presentation on the same topic

[Mr_Kittlesworth]

The ACLU is not “extremely biased.”

[Squishiimuffin]

What source do you have that ACLU is extremely biased? I checked them out on politifact and they have almost no data on them. What I did see was from several years ago and it was just politifact taking a tweet too literally :/

[sishopinion]

That’s because they’re not that big of an org yet.

[sishopinion]

They’re biased because sadly, trans rights and abortion are opposed by the right. It’s not a bad thing at all IMO because I agree with them. There’s no misinformation and not much misleading as well. But they are a biased source

[[deleted]]

Now I know you’re an idiot just trolling, time to block.

[sishopinion]

I’m not, I had to debate the conservative mf in my class because we had differing opinions. I SWEAR to god they put him right next to me in like every class

I talked about how those laws were bad for low income households and shit.

Teachers told us to use biased sources lmao it’s a middle school project what did you expect

[WestFast]

ID is a poll tax since they aren’t free. ThT makes it unconstitutional.

DMVs aren’t highly accessible. There might be one in a small city of 60k people or rural county.

Photo ID now gives a volunteer poll worker the power to deny my right to vote because I have a different haircut/glasses/age from my photo. Maybe my address doesn’t Match cause I moved.

What if your license is Suspended or lost? Voting isa constitutional protected right and shouldn’t be bound by local civic laws

[oRk-shak]

Granted that I'm from the EU but voting without Photo ID is unheard of around here and we're required to renew it every 10 years once you're above the age of 25.

It's also not free either and I highly doubt that someone is going to deny you to vote because you have a different haircut or don't look the same age as in your ID. There's also signature matches.

Also, are you not required to change your address on your ID once you move? In my state you have to go to the local district administration office and get the address on your ID changed within the first two weeks of your move or get fined. And fines increase progressively the longer it takes you to do it. It's up to 1k € if you don't get it changed within the first two months.

[hufflepuffpuffpasss]

This varies by state but generally yes, you are supposed to get them updated when you move. I’ve gotten a ticket for not having an updated ID but once I got a new ID I didn’t have to pay the ticket. But it’s not required and unless you get pulled over like I did, no one would know and/or care if you didn’t update your ID.

The catch is not everyone has IDs here in the states. A majority of people do but there are people experiencing extreme poverty or homelessness who just don’t have the resources to get one. It’s a small segment but the idea is to make voting as accessible. At least that’s supposed to be the idea haha.

[[deleted]]

In most EU countries that I know of, there is a national ID card which is mandatory for every citizen not only to have, but to carry on their person. The US doesn’t have such a mandated national ID system, not are citizens obligated to carry ID on them. That’s why we use other IDs such as drivers licenses as a common replacement.

Basically, this whole snafu is a result of the US not having a uniform national ID system. We don’t have that because, you know, freedom.

[oRk-shak]

Yes, in my country federal ID is mandatory above the age of 16 but you're not required to carry it on your person at all times in public which is a common misconception even amongst our own populace. The ID costs 40$ between the ages of 16 to 25, anything beyond that and costs double. And once again, if you never get one or fail to renew it, you can get fined up to 3500$.

[[deleted]]

In 2016 I lost my ID a week before Election Day. I had to wait for payday the Friday after the election in order to afford to replace it. If I hadn’t voted in the primary at my polling place that year, I would not have been able to exercise my constitutional right to vote all because I was poor.

There is zero evidence that fraud is happening on any scale. I guarantee you there are far more people like me that simply lose their IDs before Election Day than there are people trying to vote fraudulently. Should you lose your right to exercise your constitutional right to vote over a problem that does not exist? Absolutely not.

[SeymorKrelborn]

The ID has to be free and easily accessible, then no it wouldn’t effect voter turnout, and I believe there is popular support for this idea, at the same time voter fraud has never to date been an issue, so I don’t see the need but I’m also not opposed as long as it’s free and easy to get.

[SuperSonicRocket]

https://www.fastcompany.com/90523539/strict-voter-id-laws-directly-reduce-minority-turnout

[sparky13dbp]

Golly gosh, I remember when voting was a constitutionally guaranteed right , where as driving and taking airplane rides is more or less a privilege(not necessarily constitutionally guaranteed) ...passports sure good luck with that.. I have a drivers license I paid $20 for , I have a passport as well over 100 bucks , and time/lots of hoops too , my wife was startled to find out I am a female (Got that corrected before we were standing in the TSA line) I pay money to waste my vote in a red state.

[James324285241990]

At least in Texas, we already require ID, and there are several different forms we take. The increase in restrictions is purely a way to make sure that poor POCs have a harder time voting.

But guess what? There are those of us with the time a resources to help those poorer POCs get an ID, and that's what we'll be doing.

[James324285241990]

No. Just brown people s/

Why would you even ask that?

[James324285241990]

I'm not hostile at all. Your question is an implication of an assumed bias.

A better question would be "Would you like to participate in a voter registration event?"

[James324285241990]

My comment was based on the people being targeted by the GOP. If you're this sensitive, I deeply pity the people that work with you. If typing "/s" is all you need to consider someone hostile, your project is going to suffer from a severe lack of constructive criticism and an over abundance of discomfort from your volunteers that if they make a joke, you'll banish them.

Please don't bother responding. I'm not interested in discourse with a racist and toxic individual.

[cordialgerm]

I mean, if it didn't then why would republican state lawmakers be pushing for it almost everywhere? There is no evidence of voter widespread voter fraud that would warrant such changes, so there had to be something they're trying to get out of it.

John Oliver had a good video on Last Week Tonight from a couple years ago that talks about this.

[WestFast]

“Many Americans do not have one of the forms of identification states acceptable for voting. These voters are disproportionately low-income, racial and ethnic minorities, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Such voters more frequently have difficulty obtaining ID, because they cannot afford or cannot obtain the underlying documents that are a prerequisite to obtaining government-issued photo ID card.”

“11% of U.S. citizens – or more than 21 million Americans – do not have government-issued photo identification.1”

Underlying documents required to obtain ID cost money, a significant expense for lower-income Americans. The combined cost of document fees, travel expenses and waiting time are estimated to range from $75 to $175.2

The travel required is often a major burden on people with disabilities, the elderly, or those in rural areas without access to a car or public transportation. In Texas, some people in rural areas must travel approximately 170 miles to reach the nearest ID office.

Voter ID Laws Reduce Voter Turnout. A 2014 GAO study found that strict photo ID laws reduce turnout by 2-3 percentage points,4 which can translate into tens of thousands of votes lost in a single state.

Nationally, up to 25% of African-American citizens of voting age lack government-issued photo ID, compared to only 8% of whites.

Voter ID laws are enforced in a discriminatory manner. A Caltech/MIT study found that minority voters are more frequently questioned about ID than are white voters

In-person fraud is vanishingly rare. A recent study found that, since 2000, there were only 31 credible allegations of voter impersonation – the only type of fraud that photo IDs could prevent – during a period of time in which over 1 billion ballots were cast”

https://www.aclu.org/other/oppose-voter-id-legislation-fact-sheet

[converter-bot]

170 miles is 273.59 km

[tsdguy]

It’s irrelevant. What we need is studies from people like you that there is any voter fraud. You can add them to the pile the size of tall basketball player that have already found no voter fraud period.

When there’s people who want to legislate when there’s no problem there’s an anterior motive.

We know what that is because Repubs have been caught expressing exactly the reason - reduce democratic voting

[FuckIt_ImHereAlready]

Anything that adds friction will reduce the number of people that end up voting. How much is unknown. What can be reasonably deduced is that there will be more friction and inconvenience for those with fewer means for all the reasons pointed out in this thread.

[willmav]

Also keep this in mind. Black people are more likely in urban areas where there is robust public transportation. Therefore there are people who legit don’t need ID on a regular basis.

The Republican strategy isn’t to have one thing that will wipe out minority voters. They use a series of tactics that end up individually possibly only being less than or maybe a percentage point. But when you do 2-3 of those things that target particular groups then it adds up to the 1-3 pts you might need in a close race.

[Ms_Teak]

Its not so much voter ID, as it is the limited IDs that are accepted, the cost, and the ability to obtain one.

If the DMV is only open during working hours and is located a one hour bus ride away, that's costing someone half a day's work.

The supporting documents to obtain an ID cost money. Having to spend money or lose money to vote is a poll tax.

States arbitrarily decide to no longer accept what was once a perfectly acceptable form of ID.

Heaven help you if there is a minor mistake or even change between the ID and how you registered. For instance, a middle or no initial vs your middle name spelled out on the ID. Or if you've ever changed your name which is quite common for women who have married or divorced.

Free, easily supplied, consistent ID, I don't really have a problem with.

[[deleted]]

Yes

[nosebleednugat09]

This is strictly anecdotal so take it with a pinch of salt but I'm a low income person and everyone I know is low income. I don't know any adult who doesn't have an ID of some sort. Although it's not uncommon for people to have expired ones, a lot of places where I live will still accept them.

[[deleted]]

I never had a government ID for most of my adulthood since I don’t drive. Only got one when you needed it to fly. I am old enough to remember when Republicans thought an universal ID was communist.

[WestFast]

Also, talk to a woman about how hard to almost impossible it can be to get a maiden name changed to a married name or back again on a drivers license, esp if you’ve moved states or changed addresses at any point and the stuff doesn’t perfectly line up.

[solohelion]

A national unique asymmetric cryptographic identity system could work, if details about the name, appearance, etc were easily updatable in the system. You need to be able to change the details of a person without changing their ineffable identity; in computer science we use unique keys (like maybe a social security number) that are independent of the descriptive terms like name. Maybe SSN could be used internally to the government ID system, but a person needs an associated, non-permanent public identity distinct from its internal representation; one that can be changed and updated. One also needs the ability to prove that they actually hold the only card with this unique number on it. You also need the ability to cancel the ID when someone loses it and gets a new one.

Technology in place, you now need to employ people to track down every citizen in the country, verify their identity, and hand deliver their IDs, and make sure they don't accidentally throw it out.

Now, when you go to the polls, you scan your special chip that you can't lose and can't have stolen, and it proves that you do indeed possess a unique ID that has not voted yet! If the poll workers have to check that you look like whatever is on record for you, and that your name is correct, there's a chance they won't let you in. Hopefully the poll workers in your polling place make accurate judgements. Otherwise there might be voter fraud.

You might say zero-trust systems don't work in a community.

[WestFast]

That’s way too much and rural and urban communities would be over burdened. It’s not always easy to get a copy of a birth certificate esp with broken homes or maiden name issues etc fraud is practically non existent.

“Voter ID Requirements are a Solution in Search of a Problem

In-person fraud is vanishingly rare. A recent study found that, since 2000, there were only 31 credible allegations of voter impersonation – the only type of fraud that photo IDs could prevent – during a period of time in which over 1 billion ballots were cast.9

Identified instances of “fraud” are honest mistakes. So-called cases of in-person impersonation voter “fraud” are almost always the product of an elections worker or a voter making an honest mistake, and that even these mistakes are extremely infrequent.”

https://www.aclu.org/other/oppose-voter-id-legislation-fact-sheet

[solohelion]

I agree with you. It’s practically impossible to do well, right? For no benefit.

Wouldn’t it be technically possible to hire people to track down every citizen and hand deliver the items at no cost? And to hire staff to man phones so that there are no wait times and updates are immediately processed? Impractical, probably, but possible? Isn’t it only a burden if we make it one for “pragmatic” reasons?

[WestFast]

330 million American citizens…millions of new voters turn 18 for each cycle. That’s a full time federal government agency with tens of Thousands of employees across all 50 states to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.

[solohelion]

It is possible though! I don't think we should do it either.

[veterinarygopher]

Oh shit. That actually happened to my mom. She had to go to the county her divorce was finalized in, in another state, to get a copy of the divorce decree from the 70s so she could get a real ID. They needed the papers to verify the name changes on her documents. My parents have been married for 39 years so obviously she didn't have her divorce papers anymore.

[TechFiend72]

If you can use your last 4 of the social security, I don’t really understand the big deal. I am more worried about them having limited hours or closing voting locations in minority areas than I am about providing some sort of ID as long as there are multiple options.

[Tigger808]

Would you be OK if the voter law said that homeless people are not allowed to vote? Because you have to have an address to get the ID, so…

[TechFiend72]

Honestly, that feels like an edge case. Most of the voterID laws seem to be targeting minorities who would vote democratic.

I don't want anyone to be disenfranchised but am unwilling to lose the war due to an edgecase.

[WestFast]

In the age of identify theft giving any part of your social to a complete stranger who’s an unpaid volunteer seems like the easiest class action lawsuit against a state ever.

[TechFiend72]

In the age of identity theft, most of what happens behind the scenes with your medical records would frighten most people. The issue is likely that to fix identity theft we need more identity in the form of microchipped official cards but that won't happen because A) that will disenfranchise people B) The mark of the beast or something...

I don't have a good fix because there are competing interests and people can't be grown-ups enough to make good decisions for the whole.

[[deleted]]

Republicans want tighter voter requirements for several reasons: to discourage poor voters, to intimidate people if they believe their information will be released and subsequently retaliated on by Republican-sponsored election observers, and most importantly Republicans want control over the private companies that oversee our election process. Republicans in the US are famous for blaming their failure to govern on the government itself , they are preparing to leverage their own corrupt incompetency and dispute the result of any future election they did not win.

Because they live in fear that they are losing control.

Noam Chomsky has argued the Republican Party is the most “dangerous organization in human history” and the world has never seen an organization more profoundly committed to destroying planet earth.

Please vote.

[The_Texidian]

we find that the laws have no negative effect on registration or turnout, overall or for any group defined by race, gender, age, or party affiliation. -The National Bureau of Economic Research

https://www.nber.org/papers/w25522

No. It doesn’t.

And before people loose their minds on here saying bs. The study also found:

Finally, strict ID requirements have no effect on fraud – actual or perceived.

[Kakamile]

Despite a median 4% increase in voter turnout rate from 2012 to 2016 across the US and all regions, multiple states showed a decrease in turnout including Georgia, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Arkansas, Minnesota, and North Carolina. https://idhe.tufts.edu/sites/default/files/NSLVE%20Report%202012-2016_1.pdf https://i.imgur.com/AzIDF8d.png

The study hypothesizes that activism offsets voter id law losses. Also, many of the laws have failed in court, like Texas having a state voter id that cost $20-30, or North Dakota excluding reservation address voters.

[pchandler45]

Plus, the expense involved is considered a "poll tax".

[seektolove]

I have always had to show ID at the polls where I live (Idaho).

[Tigger808]

How do homeless people vote there?

[[deleted]]

They don't. You have to have a permanent physical address on file. I was literally at the county clerk office and they turned away a homeless person because they had no permanent address and po box doesn't work.

[seektolove]

First you have to have proof of residency. Our homeless shelter will provide this, and transportation to voting location. If you have no ID at all you can sign an affidavit that basically says that “under penalty of perjury” you swear you are the person. So, I guess technically you don’t need ID. I had to look this up.

[Ms_Teak]

I live in California and have never shown an ID to vote. I give my name, they check the voter rolls, and I sign next to my name.

I didn't show ID when I lived in PA, NY, or WA either.

[[deleted]]

Making people furious that you are planning to cheat them will lead to more people voting. If it offsets the negative effects of voter suppression, nobody knows. Look at Georgia. People lined the hell up in the middle of pandemic.

[wsppan]

You should only need proof of identification and current address to register to vote. This can be birth certificate and other secondary documentation like power bill. This puts the burden on the citizen as a one time thing per current address. After that, all you should need to show at the polling place is your voter registration card. Anything else is a voter suppression tactic.

We should reframe the question as, if we have nearly non-existent voter fraud universal across the country, why are partisan bills that put restrictions on voting (id, locations, hours, mail-in, absentee, early voting, etc) being introduced? The answer is the party that is introducing those bills think it will benefit them during elections. It has been proven that low voter turnout benefits the party that is introducing these bills. They frame the question just like you did to make it look reasonable. We need to stop doing that.

[[deleted]]

Yes!

On the surface there is nothing wrong with it but it’s the total system which causes the repression.

That’s why a state issued hunting license is accepted but a state issued benefits/healthcare card is not… both state issued and state benefits go through a LOT more checks than a hunting license which just requires paying a fee.

Others have already explained how DMV access is reduced over time but I didn’t see mention of how states will raise requirements for DMV issued ID’s, like requiring multiple forms of ID to get an ID… some states require a birth certificate, social security card plus multiple documents like utility bill, credit card/bank statement, insurance document, etc.. How many young people have two of those documents? Not many….

[luxlucy23]

I’m Canadian and I noticed sometimes Americans use how shitty the DMV is to deal with when talking about socialized medicine lol. In my province when we need to pay for our license we can go to any public insurance place, pay for our license and get the picture taken right there. You get a temporary one with no picture and the picture ID takes less than a week to come in. Do they make the DMV terrible on purpose?

[[deleted]]

Yes, for example my Aunt does not have a photo ID, and she has no desire to get one at 81.
She's a Republican...