They closed down the Larry Elder thread where I was going to go into this. The voter ID issue is a mindfuck designed to drive a wedge between the left in the right. Look there are two problems here:
Voter Fraud
Voter Suppression
Its not like one is a legitimate cause and the other is complete horseshit. These are both things we want to eliminate entirely from our country.
The solution is a more comprehensive system of government ID and voting. We should be able to get computerized stats of which area voted what way. We should be able at a minimum, look up ourselves by SS number and see our complete voting history -- so we can confirm our vote is being handled the right way. Perhaps we should just be able to see everyone's vote potentially through the system -- but there is some privacy concerns there.
While we implement the system its a good time to consider giving everyone a government account. So any payouts go there if there is no bank account set up. Apparently they couldn't hand out all the stimulus money because not everyone had accounts linked to them.
In the meantime, we have these two problems to consider. Sometimes liberals dismiss concerns about voter fraud like its impossible. There are reports of voter fraud every election. What do all these stories have in common? They don't involve people showing up under fraudulent names to stack the vote. They involve big ballot drop offs. Voter ID laws really don't address the biggest part of the fraud chain.
Meanwhile on the voter suppression end:
Quote:
Voter ID Laws Deprive Many Americans of the Right to Vote
Millions of Americans Lack ID. 11% of U.S. citizens – or more than 21 million Americans – do not have government-issued photo identification.1
Obtaining ID Costs Money. Even if ID is offered for free, voters must incur numerous costs (such as paying for birth certificates) to apply for a government-issued ID.
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.3
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.5
Voter ID Laws Are Discriminatory
Minority voters disproportionately lack ID. Nationally, up to 25% of African-American citizens of voting age lack government-issued photo ID, compared to only 8% of whites.6
States exclude forms of ID in a discriminatory manner. Texas allows concealed weapons permits for voting, but does not accept student ID cards. Until its voter ID law was struck down, North Carolina prohibited public assistance IDs and state employee ID cards, which are disproportionately held by Black voters. And until recently, Wisconsin permitted active duty military ID cards, but prohibited Veterans Affairs ID cards for voting.
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.7
Voter ID laws reduce turnout among minority voters. Several studies, including a 2014 GAO study, have found that photo ID laws have a particularly depressive effect on turnout among racial minorities and other vulnerable groups, worsening the participation gap between voters of color and whites.8
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The concerns just don't stack up. Republicans read like: "I'm willing to sacrifice up to 25% of the black vote to make 100% sure no in-person fraud occurs." Brave of you guys to be willing to give up 25% of the Democrat vote to make sure there is never an unprecedented case of mass voter fraud. But Democrats think its more fair to not disenfranchise 25% of black people even though it provides imperfect protection against the extremely rare cases of in person voter fraud.
https://www.aclu.org/other/oppose-vo...ion-fact-sheet