Should there be a national Voter ID law?

I keep finding myself asking one question whenever this topic comes up, who the hell is unable to get ID here in the states? I mean seriously how many people are there out there without ID here in the states? MAybe the question we should be asking is how can we ensure that all citizens have access to some form of ID.

To all the people who are so incredulous about people not having State ID's, you do understand that it is more than walking into the DMV, plunking down $50 -100, and getting your picture taken. You have to have ID to get ID. Birth Certificate, Proof of Residency, many require some sort of Federal ID.

You people realize that there are many people in this country that do not have Birth Certificates, especially poor, rural, elderly, and minority. So let's heap more expense on those least able to bear the burden just so they can exercise a right, but we aren't trying to suppress any demographic.....please, sell it to the Air Force!

Until the government is willing to conveniently offer free ID cards to any eligible voter, I won't support this. I view it as a solution looking for a problem (scant evidence of voter impersonation), and I think it is nothing more than an attempt to influence elections. Make them easy to obtain, and make them free (both directly and indirectly), and maybe then I'll be supportive. Until then, no way.

https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/research-and-publications-voter-id

I don't mind the idea from the perspective of attempting to ensure only verified U.S. Citizens are physically allowed to take part in the voting process. However, in doing so, I would also place the burden and accountability on the State to ensure every citizen of their State is legitimately provided the IDs, at no cost or inconvenience to the citizen.

I have a question for you, pertaining to your usage of Driving, Employment, and Tobacco Purchase as rationalization tools to support your argument for National IDs on Voting. How are those items weighted against each other in the U.S. Constitution?

11% of the voting age population do not have a photo ID. There is a real expense that can be incurred to get an ID. In many states, just getting to an office where you can get an official ID is a long process. Take Texas, for example. Many folk in rural regions find them selves travelling more then 150 miles just to get to an office. This is an unreasonable burden and is a solution looking for a problem

I used to think that way until my parents got into their eighties and my dad died. My mom was confined to a wheelchair since she was 65. So guess what? She was an adult who didn't drive, or buy alcohol or tabacco, or apply for a job. She lived in an assisted living facility where she required daily medical attention. Her drivers license expired decades ago. So she had no official ID that would meet the strict requirements of some of the states that added voter ID laws. So while all the staff and residents in her facility knew her, and they even set up a voting location in her facility on Election Day, in those states she wouldn't be eligible to exercise her right to vote.

Now, let's say she had to get one of the new acceptable IDs that almost all require submitting a certified copy of her birth certificate. First, since my dad died five years before my mom, and he took care of paperwork stuff in his own unique way, just her finding a copy of her birth certificate would be a huge challenge. Second, she had no idea how to use a computer, so she couldn't simply google the address for requesting one in her home state. And even if she got one, she had no way to get to a DMV to get the ID card. While the facility had a van for weekly trips that could accommodate a wheelchair, they don't run errands like that where they wait for you.

Fortunately, if my mom actually needed to do all that, my brother was there to help her, to get on a computer for her, to drive her, etc. and my mom could afford the $25 or $50 some states charge for certified birth certificates. So it would have gotten done.

But then I started thinking about the elderly like my mom who each month choose between buying their medication or food. Who have disabilities and haven't been outside in months. Who don't have anyone who can get on the computer for them. Whose children, also struggling in poverty, can't afford to take an unpaid day off to go to DMV, or don't have a car that accommodates a wheelchair. There are hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled people in situations just like that. In fact, they DON'T need a certified ID to live their lives day to day. They have been doing that for years. But these new restrictive voter ID laws make it very difficult to get such an ID and do, in fact, make it impossible for them to vote, after many have been casting votes for 60 plus years.

Those people are the real targets of these voter ID laws, because they tend to vote more democratic than republican. The republicans are more than happy to make it difficult to impossible for hundred of thousands of Americans to vote, and use the often disproved boogeyman of voter fraud to do it.

I would suggest to those who simply cannot imagine how it could be so difficult for some to get a certified copy of a birth certificate and get down to the DMV and get an ID and afford to pay for it, that you may not have really thought through what daily life is like at the existence level of poverty or the limitations and isolation of those who live alone and are disabled. It is not at all the simple task you envision.

I’ve read a lot of, “if it’s not a problem for me so I don’t understand why it’s a problem for anyone else” posts on this thread. I’m not elderly, with no money and without transportation in a nursing home so I don’t understand how anyone else could be, etc.

Here is an interesting story of an elderly man whose name was changed when he was a child by his mother and can’t find documentation of it. He could pay to have the documentation made but it is too expensive for him. There are lots of reasons why something like this may happen.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/getting-a-photo-id-so-you-can-vote-is-easy-unless-youre-poor-black-latino-or-elderly/2016/05/23/8d5474ec-20f0-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html?utm_term=.cc90cbfa29b1

Could some scheme be made where national ID’s were free, and highly available everywhere with free help to make sure the required documentation is there? Sure, it could happen. Will it happen? No. Why?

-Because it is an expensive way to deal with a problem that we don’t know is large enough to spend a lot of money on when we have other known large problems
-Because the politicians pushing for these laws and telling people it is a big problem without evidence are not interested in dealing with voter fraud. They are interested in suppressing the ability to vote of people likely to vote for the other party. Any scheme that doesn’t do that isn’t meeting the reason they are making such noise about it in the first place.

Sure, that way it will be much easier when you pull up to the checkpoints, for the nice man to say "Ich bin bei der Landespolizei. Deine Papiere, bitte."

Sure, why not. Just as you said, "Any adult that drives, applies for job, buys tobacco, etc needs to have an ID." A responsible adult won't have a problem showing ID, it's just to verify your name, address, and age.

Yes. It should be law to show an ID to vote. An ID is needed for darn near everything else. It makes sense to have an idea when selecting representatives at all the levels of government.