What's Really Wrong with Voter ID?

So, now that you've heard my views on the masses of stupid people voting (see previous post), let me tell you what I actually think about the voter ID laws that are popping up all over the country, including here in Minnesota.  I've had friends ask me what's so bad about these laws, because on it's face, voter ID doesn't seem all that unreasonable.

OK, since we can't use my nifty voting quiz to see who should get to vote, why shouldn't we use photo ID cards?  Well, for the following reasons:

1.  As much as I may sometimes disagree, voting is a right, not a privilege.  Therefore, we should be entitled to vote as easily as possible without paying to do so.  Have you ever heard of a "poll tax?"  That's when you charge certain people money to vote, and that's illegal.  Even if you distribute a "free" ID to anyone who may not have a driver's license, those people need to pay to get a birth certificate and/or passport to get that "free" ID, not to mention the transportation time and cost it will take to get those items.  Think elderly people and the disabled.

2. Voter fraud is not a problem.  Many extensive studies done recently have shown that voter fraud on any kind of large scale is simply not happening in the U.S.  If I were a real go-getter, I could post some links for you here to those studies, but I'm too lazy to google it.  The reason voter fraud is not a major problem, in my opinion, is that most reasonable people aren't willing to go to federal prison just to cast an illegal vote.  I have been an election judge as well as a recount observer, and I can tell you firsthand that we have a very efficient and safe system here in Minnesota.  So if it ain't broke, why fix it?

3. It's clearly just a ploy by Republicans to keep low-income people as well as students from voting. Why?  Because low-income people and students tend to vote Democratic. The obstacles in the voter ID laws are targeted directly at low-income people via the poll tax issue, and at students, since the laws always state that college-issued student ID's will not count as a valid ID for voting purposes.  The point is, if you put obstacles in the way of people who usually vote for your opponent (the Democrat), then you (the Republican) tend to win more, right? 

The whole thing is so ridiculous, but it's an idea that will seem completely reasonable by people who already have a driver's license and think "Hmm, this doesn't seem like such a bad idea."  And that's why it's so dangerous, and shouldn't be something that's voted on by the general public. 

Especially since they don't all have a valid photo ID.  :-)