Of course this precludes many homeless people from voting, and often from receiving other services, but order must be held in higher regards than compassion.
This is the most German statement I have ever heard.
Don't project.
Having helped homeless people and seeing many people help homeless people in Germany, I don't think I have ever heard a more stereo typing comment on Hackernews.
And if you're German (or somewhere else), I hope you have given to causes for the homeless, or organized something on your own, because talk is cheap.
really, just conservative gerrymandering.
I'm also baffled how that is a problem in UK/US.
1. Culturally not needing ID is important. That's lessening, but certainly in my age group there's a considerable amount of people who do not want to be asked for ID because it's an infringement on their liberty.
2. Vote suppression. By choosing some documents (more likely to be held by your supporters) as valid ID, and others as not (make up any excuse) you can ensure your supporters aren't turned away at the polls while other party supporters are, this effectively disenfranchises them but you can pretend it wasn't on purpose.
I'd say the European assumption would be that there are one or two valid ID cards (a passport and a national identity card), and owning either one would be mandatory. Doesn't then disenfranchise anyone.
It's not mandatory in all European countries though. But I think it's usually mandatory that you are able to identify yourself somehow.
The main way you might be required to identify yourself in the UK is if a Police Officer says either you are suspected of a specific crime, or you are a witness to such a crime. In both cases officers are entitled to you truthfully revealing your name and address as part of investigating the crime, but they aren't entitled to see a photo ID as you may not even own such ID. If you refuse to identify yourself in either of these cases, or the officer believes your answer was deceitful, they can arrest you (which if you were a suspect was likely going to happen anyway).
There is no need in Germany to show an ID or have the ID with you, only to own an ID.
2. "Vote suppression"
Voter turnout:
Germany 2021 76,4%
UK 2019 67,3 %Parties used to also choose their own nominees inside private conventions, but now there’s a system of primaries and caucuses that allow a complete outsider to just register with an party and earn the nomination by working outside of the party machinery. In California there’s no guarantee you can even put forward a candidate in every election below the Presidential-level because there’s only two slots in the election that are earned through an open primary, so it’s not uncommon to have two of the same party running against each other.
Allow me to rephrase that for you....
The voting ID requirement was introduced as a political tactic by the present UK government.
Pure and simple.
Don't believe me ? Look at the ID requirements. They are blatantly centered on the age-group that is known to support the Conservative party, i.e. the elderly.
For example:
Oyster photo-card (RFID travel card with your name and photo on it) .... over 60 ? Yes, you may use it as voting ID. 18–59 ? No, you may not use it as voting ID.
The over 60 card requires that your eligibility is verified before it's issued. This includes checking your name, address, and age.
The cards for younger people have no such verification process.
But effectively they could still do that at the point of use if they wanted to!
Recall, before ID was mandated, you would turn up and state your name and address which would be checked against the electoral roll by the officer.
Therefore ...
If someone 18–59 turns up with a photo Oyster card, you could, if you wanted to:
1. Check their face against the photo on the card
2. Check their name and date of birth on the card against the name and date of birth on the electoral roll.When I first voted here, as an immigrant, I took my passport to the voting station just in case someone asked.
The resistance to Photo IDs for voting really boils down to 'people of colour can't afford photo ids', and claim that the whole thing is a nefarious plot to rig elections.
That said, the recent New Years Eve fireworks display in London required photo ID to attend, and nobody complained.
why should that be seen as odd, as opposed to being civilised?
There have been attempts to introduce a national ID (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_Card was the main one), but it keeps being rejected (and for a bunch of like healthcare and tax there's specific IDs for those).