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 2 hours 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 2 hours 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 2 hours 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.

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zahlman 2 hours 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.

	▲	squeaky-clean an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Under the text of the proposed SAVE Act, drivers licenses or state ID's wouldn't be enough to count as a voting ID. In Canada a drivers license is enough to vote.

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lefra 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There's a trivial solution to this: IDs should be provided by the government for free.