[depaya]

You're absolutely right, however it's an issue because the people fighting for requiring ID are not also fighting to get IDs to everyone (or in some cases they actively fighting against that by closing DMV locations in certain areas... and are generally just making it harder).

This cannot be a case of Require IDs first, deal with the repercussions later. These steps MUST be taken together or not at all.

It also becomes partisan when you look at the IDs that are considered acceptable in some places.

- Hunting license: Allowed - College Student ID: Not Allowed

Hmm, I wonder if the demographics of those populations might have affected that decision somehow...

[tablespoon]

> This cannot be a case of Require IDs first, deal with the repercussions later. These steps MUST be taken together or not at all.

And that would make sense. However the impression I get is that Democrats aren't doing that, instead they just oppose voter ID tooth and nail. It would make way more sense for them to support voter ID with the condition that the ID-access issue must be solved. That would even have political benefits for them because it would make it a lot harder for the Republicans to capitalize on the issue.

[pmyteh]

Politically you may be right. As a piece of policy, it's a solution in search of a problem. Even in places like the UK (which have ID-free voting) personation is essentially a non-problem. Literally a handful of votes a year. If you want to try to influence election results you don't do it at retail, with a high chance of getting caught and low returns, you do something systematic: the present government's drive to redraw boundaries and discourage the 'wrong kind' of voters, perhaps, which will end up being legal but which is deeply scummy, or the kind of skulduggery seen in Erlam v Rahman[0].

Given that any kind of ID requirement is likely to reduce the number of votes (some proportion will lose or forget their ID even if you literally issue IDs to every single eligible person) the ultimate question is this: how many valid votes are you prepared to lose in order to prevent each invalid one?

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlam_v_Rahman

[ghaff]

Perhaps. But one is also a government-issued ID and the other is something issued by a random private organization ()in many cases).