> paper ballots and requiring IDs

isn't that racist? i've heard it repeated but i'm not so sure

Depends on what qualifies as an ID and how hard it is to get one. But unless you're actively providing them to people that need them with no extra work or travel on their part then you're going to be discriminating against people with less money or time.

In the case where disproportionately more poor people are of a certain race then it can be seen as racist (as it affects the population of that race differently). If the reason that disproportionately more poor people are of a certain race is because of racism, then a policy that disenfranchised the poor would effectively extend economic discrimination into political discrimination.

Though I tend to think that even if we remove the economic effects of racism such that disenfranchising the poor couldn't be called racist, they would still be classist and should be avoided where possible.

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zahlman 39 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Americans who make this link to racism are welcome to explain why the same argument gets zero traction in Canadian politics, even among the most left-wing parties.

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macintux 27 minutes ago | parent [-]

I have to imagine the Canadian ID situation is different. Here, simply obtaining a copy of your birth certificate can be a long trip to a different state.

	▲	dirasieb 25 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		birth certificate is not the only form of ID

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dirasieb 40 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

>Depends on what qualifies as an ID

how about the ones accepted by the police when they ask "show me your ID"?

if it's enough to ID you to cops it should be enough to ID you to enter the voting booth, no?

>and how hard it is to get one.

you can get one at the DMV

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some_random an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

It's been a talking point specific to the voting system in the US, strangely no other country seems to think it's an issue and as soon as the topic changes no one in the US has an issue requiring IDs for things.

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IX-103 44 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

No other country is quite as heterogeneous as the US. And there is a significant history in the US of using restrictions around voting to disenfranchise certain ethnicities. That makes any restriction around voting a sensitive topic in the US.

Proponents of voter ID claim it is needed to prevent fraud, while opponents point out that there's not enough fraud for it to be worth the cost.

Note that countries such as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand also didn't require voter ID. First-world countries that do require ID to vote have systems in place to ensure that getting that ID is easy even for poorer people - such as automatically sending the ID to the voter by mail if the government requires you to report your residence or filing out the necessary forms once, before turning 18.

	▲	dirasieb 27 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> No other country is quite as heterogeneous as the US. there's no scientific link between race and the ability to go to a DMV once every 10 years

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mkehrt an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Voting is a civil right. We need to have a system that allows everyone who is allowed to vote, to vote. Many people don't have IDs and it is an onerous process to get one. Any system that requires IDs for voting suppresses these people's civil rights.

	▲	zahlman 41 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> Many people don't have IDs and it is an onerous process to get one. I have seen this constantly claimed, and never reasonably evidenced. It's also hard to believe the kind of American exceptionalism that supposedly causes these problems that everyone else can easily solve, despite an environment that is clearly heavily politically invested in solving it (because that also avoids the appearance of racism). Meanwhile, American proponents of voter ID can readily find people including among the supposedly discriminated-against groups who will testify to the contrary.
	▲	lefra 17 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		There's a trivial solution to this: IDs should be provided by the government for free.