Edit: this was never supposed to come across as support for voter ID.
So I saw this article today, and was thinking about how hilarious it would be if Dems passed some sort of voter ID law just because it would make reddit libs cry. But I don't want people to be hurt over it either. Also, as much as we like to dunk on libs, "owning" them through screwing people over is never cool.
I understand that one of the main reasons people are against it is that it's essentially a poll tax as it stands now, and I agree with that. Making IDs free would invalidate that argument. The next argument I hear is that people who live far away from DMV or Secretary of State offices would have trouble getting there to get their picture taken. I am one of those people who live far away from government offices and I manage to get my ass there once every three years.. I don't see how this is such a problem. But I also recognize that attitude is similar to some sort of bootstrapping chud bullshit.
I also see arguments that boil down to "all POC are too dumb and poor to be able to go to the DMV and get the licenses" and that's obviously awful, and is basically the libs version of the subtle racism of lower expectations. You never see this said about white people. To them, all white people who live in rural areas are MAGA knuckle draggers who don't deserve the time of day. I really feel like libs only care because it's something that is popular on the right, and they want to stick it to them. They also think that voting is the most precious and sacred institution ever devised by man, so that's part of it. Point being, I'm sure every lib that goes to vote, hands over their license when asked. It's another example of libs using POC for political gain and then not caring about any of their real problems.
I think if the government wants to hand out free ID cards and all it requires is you going to an office to get your picture taken three times a decade, I don't see a problem, and I'll bet it would actually help people out with other obstacles that require ID. Like, how do libs think these people function in other areas of life? You need an ID to buy several items, sign up for social programs, drive, enroll in school, sign up for utilities, rent/buy a house...
Please tell me if this is chuddy and set me straight if that's the case.
To provide a specific example of a barrier that people would face under even a free ID with lax updating requirements and better access to issuing offices: a lot of people do not have sufficient documentation to get an ID, particularly the unhoused, people born without official record, and people who have lost the paperwork for whatever reason. Without the documentation, it becomes either impossible or a much longer, byzantine process to obtain ID.
Now, for the more theoretical question: could an ID system exist that was accessible and egalitarian enough to be distributed to very nearly everyone with ease and therefore not be a meaningful obstruction to voting rights? Yes, but it would still be pointless to require. Individual voter fraud has pretty much never been an issue in this country, without these measures.
The instinct to say, "well ok, some people are putting voter ID laws into place and maybe it's because they believe in it. So we should at least make the process easy." Is understandable, but very much in keeping with the liberal orthodoxy of letting the GOP have its way and we'll fight again someway else. I think their record speaks for itself in that regard, but to expand: accepting what is inarguably a barrier to democratic participation at present and provides no benefit (save that barrier) in order to mitigate the harm in the future always means you have lost and will further have to expend resources to simply achieve where you were to begin with.
It is one hundred times better to fight at the source and reject the requirements entirely even once they are in place. We should not speak of how voter ID needs to be made easier to reduce its harm; we should speak of how all voter ID can do is harm.
It is one thousand times better to fight at the root and reject our bourgeois republic that was never intended to be democratic and will by its structure resist any change grafted onto it toward the end of empowering all people.