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Comment by deepdriver | Hacker News Reader

I don't know about Australia, but in America our lack of voter ID has led to contention in the past:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27550168

Personally I think voter ID makes sense even if only to quash allegation of voter fraud. Voter ID enjoys overwhelming (>80%) bipartisan support from regular Americans. The main obstacle to new voter ID laws is the Democratic Party establishment. They calculate a marginal decrease in electoral margins if new voter ID laws were to be enacted. Of course then they wind up faced with fiascos like January 6, but politicians are nothing if not short-term planners.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/25/politics/voter-id-election-la...

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Support is strong when you ask a one-dimensional question ("do you, in general, support voter ID?").

The poll linked from the CNN article demonstrates this: there's also overwhelming support for making voting easier, but voter IDs (without free and accessible ID services) will make it harder. And that's the crux of the common Democratic position: voter IDs are perfectly fine if we ensure access to IDs. But that needs to happen before or with any restrictions on voting, to prevent disenfranchisement.

Right—I'm for it if we had universal free national IDs and services to ensure everyone had one. It'd actually solve a ton of other problems, too, so yes, please, do that and then check IDs at the polls all you like.

But that's a topic the Democrats are very divided on, and the Republicans really don't want, so it's never gonna happen. The result is that I'm not against IDing voters in principle but am in practice, given the current political situation and lack of demonstrated urgency or need that might justify the down-sides of doing it absent universal national IDs.

How hard is it to get a driver's license or state ID, which again, people already need for a long list of common tasks? Go to the DMV once every five years. Make an appointment online if your DMV does that, in and out in under an hour. I agree that it should be even easier, but it's not exactly a major obstacle.

It’s enough of an inconvenience that I don’t have one. And I have a cushy job!

How do you respond when the bartender, grocery store cashier, 7-11 clerk, or movie theater attendant ask to see your ID?

I have a NYC ID, and a federal ID (Global Entry) when that doesn’t work.

> They calculate a marginal decrease in electoral margins if new voter ID laws were to be enacted.

So what you're saying is that voter ID will result in some citizens not voting. Personally, that seems like a fair reason to oppose the measure.

> The main obstacle to new voter ID laws is the Democratic Party establishment.

Propose voter ID laws that include provisions to make sure that it is easy and free for eligible voters to obtain the necessary ID and Democrats won't object.

> Personally I think voter ID makes sense even if only to quash allegation of voter fraud.

I guess I just wonder how likely it would be to quash allegations of voter fraud. When we humans distrust a process, we seem to be able to come up with all sorts of wild stories to justify our fear and anger.

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