First things first, I don’t doubt it is a bad thing, considering who supports it and who doesn’t.
But my question is what exactly is the issue and what is the current and proposed voting process when it comes to IDs?
Here in my EU country, you have to show some version of a government ID, be it an ID card, drivers license or passport. And we don’t have to pre-register to vote.
Short answer: The USA has no national ID.
Long answer: instead we have a patchwork of more than 50 different regional IDs (between states, territories, etc.), alongside a half-dozen ill-suited federal IDs, and numerous public and private institutional IDs (like university IDs or Costco cards).
For the most part, all of these cost money. Due to inconsistent systems and sometimes unclear requirements, the people who are most likely to be disenfranchised are also the most vulnerable. Most state IDs require proof of residence like a utility bill, which can be impossible if you are homeless or off-grid. If you are disabled, you may not qualify for a driver’s license (the most common state ID). If you are trans (or a married woman), you may have paperwork with conflicting legal names.
If you are reasonably well-off, on the other hand, you can afford to pay a private company to facilitate your passport application. The US passport is basically the gold standard of national ID, but fewer than half of Americans have one. It requires a certain amount of wealth to even need one, and the expense (money, time, etc) is not trivial.
Australia has no national id (except maybe passport but US has that as well). To register to vote you need to provide id. U dont show I’d at the polling booth but u sure as shit need to get ur name ticked off the big book of names for registered voters.
All forms of id in Australia cost money (except ur original birth certificate). If ur name has changed for any reason u need to go get a new id pay money for that pay for the name change update existing records with the proof of name change etc etc etc. I don’t sew how the US is any different?
Also in in Australian if u don’t vote they fine you. If you don’t register to vote and provide id in doing this u need id at the polling booth to register to vote and thus vote otherwise they fine you.
Australia has solved the problem by simply making voting a duty instead of a right. If u can’t get an id in Australia (can’t afford it or provide paperwork etc etc) you cannot fulfill ur legal duty to vote and get fined. Instead of lower the cost to get id and vote in the US (every single state with voter id laws already issues free voter id or waives fees on existing id if for purposes of voting) why not just raise the floor for not doing it and punish anyone who doesn’t do it.
To be fair, some US states do handle this better than others. Australia is about the population of California. So now just figure out how to coordinate that system with about 50 other Australias of various sizes and political leanings and you’ve got something.
CTRL+C and then CTRL+V.
Do that 50 times and ur all set. We have multiple different state and territory id’s. I’m sure that the fed has a digital system where u out in id and out pops a passport. I can assure you that the id checking for that system is automated and works for id from all states. It cant be that hard to copy paste that system for a voter registry.