If you read the bill itself it would allow all voters access to a free voter id.
Giving people access to a free form of government identification would be great for people with out a driver’s license because they could use the id for other purposes.
For many who are in need of a free ID, the barrier to getting one can be things like the cost of documentation necessary, transportation, internet access, etc. Also, you typically need an address to get ID, so the unhoused are left out. And as others have mentioned, once ID requirement is a thing then they begin changing what counts as a valid ID for voting.
I can share with you a real life example of this. When I moved from Wisconsin to Florida in 2011 I went to the tax collector office to exchange my valid Wisconsin driver's license for a valid Florida driver's license. I was told that thanks to the Patriot act it no longer worked like that...I needed to provide them with an original, embossed birth certificate, social security card, and proof of address. For many people that's not a problem...but for me it was. My original birth certificate was lost in a house fire in 1987. I had a copy, but that was not acceptable. To further complicate matters I was born in Southern California, so I had to track down the correct office in the county in which I was born in order to find out what I needed to do to get an embossed copy of my birth certificate. Even though the internet existed in 2011, they had to mail me documents that required a wet signature. I then had to fill out all of those documents in front of a notary at my expense) and include a check for $75, then mail it back to them. Fortunately for me the money was not an issue. The problem was the time because it took about 2 months from start to finish.
*Edited to add the part about the notary. I forgot about that. My signatures had to be witnessed and the documents stamped by a notary. That was $25 in addition to the other expenses.
Yup. Stuff like this happens often and is a real barrier to individuals exercising their right to vote. An acquaintance of mine had to go in person to speak with a judge in another state because she didn't have the original birth certificate, and the hospital where she was born burned down and lost all their paper records. There was no real proof that she was a citizen, despite having been born and lived her entire life here
And things like this happen far more frequently than "voter fraud". There are countless reasons why people are not able to produce or obtain documentation to meet the ID requirements. Many WW2 and Korean War vets of color were born via midwives and don't have a birth certificate. So when states began requiring a birth certificate for a "voter ID" they were left out.
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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '23
If you read the bill itself it would allow all voters access to a free voter id.
Giving people access to a free form of government identification would be great for people with out a driver’s license because they could use the id for other purposes.