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Comment by tzs | Hacker News Reader

> Then they go to Harlem to ask people what they think of those comments.

Maybe they should have asked in one of the states that is actually passing restrictive voter ID laws, and that is at the same time closing DMV offices in minority areas, limiting the hours that DMVs issue IDs, and has nearly non-existent affordable public transit.

The might have gotten different answers than asking in a state that is pro voter rights, in a neighborhood that has a DMV office, and that has excellent access to public transportation if for some reason the neighborhood DMV is not available.

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How are all these people that are unable to get an ID able to finance a car, pass an apartment background check, open a bank account, buy alcohol, obtain govt. assistance etc?

In order for me to add my family to my insurance I had to provide identification for each of them, including a marriage certificate and drivers licenses for myself and my wife. All that just to get health insurance.

In order to vote you should have to identify yourself and that you are eligible to vote in a US election. It's complete nonsense that getting an ID in the US is just too much of a burden.

Can you actually name a specific town/county that has this problem or is this imaginary?

It's happening in multiple states. Finding examples is trivial.

https://www.aclu.org/blog/voting-rights/voting-rights-act/al...

In public opinion polls black voters strongly favor voter ids.

Those polls also show that they strongly favor free IDs that are easy to obtain.

Almost no one opposed the idea of voter ID if it is free and easy for everyone who is eligible to vote to obtain such ID.

It's when shenanigans like those in North Carolina described in footnote 360 in this report [1] take place that it is a problem. The government knew that 25% of black voters lacked DMV-issued photo ID but the law provided that all government issued IDs would work (even expired ones), so that was fine. Then with race data in hand, the legislature amended the law to exclude most of those non-DMV IDs that black voters had, and retain the non-DMV IDs that white people were likely to have.

[1] https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/2018/Minority_Voting_Access...

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