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Comment by leflambeur | Hacker News Reader

This makes no sense. You can literally register to vote at the DMV and I know very few adult Americans, of one ethnicity or another, who don't have a driver's license.

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You dont know many poor people, or very young people.

I work a furry convention in the Southern US, about 3% of our attendees have some ID related malady - can't get a timely appointment at DMV, missing core documentation, unable to prove residency, etc - nevermind rural voters who may live hours from a DMV.. which they can't get to without a license (assuming they can afford a car) or a ride. No bus service to speak of either.

Its a huge issue, I'd 100% support voter ID if getting an ID was free and easy, without it I'm skeptical.

Yeah, see the article about "RealID" yesterday. The first step is to require an ID, and the next step is to make it harder to get. For example, a married woman without a perfect paper trail of name changes? No Id.

I unironically keep an original copy of those documents in my safety deposit box because of this. In theory I should be able to go to the courthouse and get another copy but if 40 years down the line they've lost them I'm screwed.

I feel bad for the people in states that don't require court orders for this because they apparently have the worst time trying to update accounts.

I'm with you

What state do you live in? I think this argument is very frustrating when people who live largely in blue states (like California) that don't up any hurdles to getting an ID, can't imagine the level of dysfunction that is intentionally executed in other states in order to prevent people from getting IDs.

Yeah, everyone you know has a valid ID because you don't live in a battleground state that is currently fighting electoral welfare. Republicans don't care to put up barriers to getting an ID in California, Texas or New York.

> I know very few adult Americans

Do you think there's a chance there's a selection bias to your random sampling of the population?

It's easier if you just tell me what the bias is.

Incidentally, there are many less privileged people around me and, let me tell you, they're not going to work on foot.

Most people are friends with people like themselves?

The selection bias of extrapolating an entire country (not to mention one as large and diverse as usa) by using your friend group should be very obvious.

Yet I wasn't talking about my friends. I live in a large city and get to see many people I don't know every single day.

Incidentally, my friends are much more likely to not need to drive at all (tech or otherwise who WFH) than the average person around me.

Do you often ask people you don't know if they have a driver's license?

> live in a large city

Ah yes, large cities. Famous for their rural populations.

You're not arguing in good faith.

Wait, are you telling me that rural populations have less proclivity to drive?

I'm just pointing out obvious ways in which you have selection bias here.

FWIW googling, allegedly 1 in 10 people in rural america do not have a license. Or at least that is the claim floating around the internet. So yes, i think figuring out if this is a real issue should include both checking on rural and urban people, along with many other demographics. It is not obvious how this situation differs between urban/rural.

Just read all the answers in this thread. Your PoV is far from reality, especially at a time where elections are decided by single digit margins.

Do any of them take the bus to work?

RealID documentation requirements are a PITA. I have a birth certificate and passport and valid DL and it still was a nuisance the accumulate the required point allocation. People without those golden documents can be very hard pressed to meet the bar.

> This makes no sense. You can literally register to vote at the DMV.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/feb/19/john-olive...

> driver's license

Republicans are trying to make it so that the vast majority of drivers' licenses do not work either. You may have to get a new one, with passport-level paperwork.

That politifact page literally states there are close by DMVs that are open every week. Not sure what point is trying to be made.

Around 9% of US citizens 18 or older do not have a non-expired driver's license. It's even more for various minorities [1][2].

[1] https://cdce.umd.edu/sites/cdce.umd.edu/files/pubs/Voter%20I...

[2] https://papersplease.org/wp/2024/06/07/who-lacks-id-in-ameri...

I only mentioned DMVs to point out that even if you didn't set out to get a voting document, you can still check the box and get it.

In other words, it's not "people need driver's licenses to vote".

Aren't poor and dumb usually republicans tho?

The poor disproportionately votes left. Somebody who is poor and lives without a valid ID that meets voting requirements is also not necessarily dumb.

Cities. It's cities.

Almost 10% of eligible voters do not have access to citizenship proof at ready[0].

Trump changed voting rules to require proof of citizenship[1].

Disenfranchising 21 million voters makes sense now, no?

[0] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/213-...

[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/25/politics/voting-proof-of-...

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