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Comment by taxicab | Hacker News Reader

The fact of the matter is that voter ID laws prevent legal voters from having their voices heard and that they disproportionately affect minorities. Participating in democracy is meant for everyone, not just the people who can afford a poll tax or who can afford to go through a stringent verification process. It's telling that the supports of voter ID laws are also against providing every legal voter with an ID for no cost.

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Serving as an election officer, my mind is blown by these ID claims:

- We do shag-all else in life without showing identification. Try to see a dentist without photo ID and proof of insurance.

- State issued ID with a bar code ensures rapid check-in to participate, minimizing lines, while maximizing valid voter participation.

- The nicest thing I have to say about the opposing arguments is they are far from compelling.

Database maintenance is hard. It is my hope that the results of the election next month are solid enough that the U.S. has a mandate to shore up the whole creaky mess and ensure every legal voter is treated equally, as they should be.

I've voted Democrat my whole life but I'm also a bit of an idealist in that I'd like voters to be mildly informed on what/who they're voting for, and IMO if someone can't spend the small time/effort to get an ID (which is sort of needed for modern living anyway), are they really going to spend time/effort to do a bare minimum amount of work to become informed on their votes?

It'd be ideal if people could step back, disassociate themselves from their political party, and decide if something makes sense.

It also prevents illegal voters from voting. There are more than 10 million illegal immigrants in the US current. I think the economic arguments you’ve made have been disproven. All the states I’ve looked at allow you to get an ID for free.

If only there was evidence that these people are actually trying to vote illegally. Yet, after spending millions of dollars trying, and trying, and really REALLY trying people like you are still unable to demonstrate that this is a problem. It is almost like the whole illegal voting thing is a red herring that is used to disguise your actual intentions...

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