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Comment by secabeen | Hacker News Reader

> I think that voter ID laws are probably fine. I'm in a state that has them, and I suspect that I would feel weird if the requirement were repealed.

> I don't know if IDs are free in all states, but if they are, I would be more inclined to support it as a requirement for voting.

The IDs being free is good, but not sufficient. The ID issuing organization also must be funded sufficiently to provide comprehensive access to ID-related services to all citizens, regardless of disability, population density, cost of provision, etc.

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And you can be absolutely certain it won’t be, because the reason for Voter ID laws is to disenfranchise people that the people making the laws don’t want to vote.

Are we sure the effect will be what we assume? Don’t democrats skew more educated and higher income at this point

Yes, because it’s not “Democrats” that the far right wants to prevent from voting, it’s anyone poor or from an ethnic minority, who often happen not to have as much access to a DMV or other facility in which they can obtain an ID.

Elsewhere in the thread is mentioned the predominantly-Black county that has a DMV only open one day a month. Why do you think that is?

You really think poor people and minorities don't have IDs? They must never interact with any form of government or finance that ever needs an ID.

This is a massive trope some people bring up all the time. Please show credible data that this is true and I'll happily admit I'm wrong.

Enough don’t that this can be an effective means of voter suppression, otherwise the states doing it would not be doing it. It doesn’t actually improve election security at all, all it does is add expense and difficulty to voting even for their own voters.

is there research on this?

An enormous amount - see, for example, this study: https://www.voteriders.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/CDCE_V...

About 10% of eligible voters don't have the ID they would need. The people most likely to lack proper ID for voting are young, Black or Hispanic, and poor.

Lots more details in the report!

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