That's normal in New Zealand as well. I can vote with no form of ID.

Requiring voter ID disenfranchises marginalised and poor voters, who may not be able to obtain ID easily. I know several people who have no form of government issued ID.

It's different in countries like Germany and France, where compulsory national ID is a thing.

Rates of fraud and abuse are low enough that this isn't an issue. Technically I could go and vote in somebody else's name, and hope they also didn't vote, and I most likely wouldn't get caught. But if they did vote as well, then the double-vote would be noticed (people have have been caught casting multiple votes in the past) and would be investigated.

I'm not sure what the laws are in NZ, but can a non-citizen vote in a NZ election? If noone checks for any sort if ID, how do they ensure that there isn't any fraud? In a democracy, I'm honestly not convinced that 'its not that big of a problem yet' is a sufficient answer

Marginalised and poor voters exist in Europe and they have an ID card like anybody else. Having yours done could be free, if you're so inclined.

The problem is that the system would be run by racist state governments who would construct the system in the worst possible way.

(Not a conjecture, this was actually evidence in one of the various voter ID lawsuits; the state government had constructed a table with impact assessments of various approaches, then picked the one with the worst impact)

Just because ID is free does not make it universally accessible.

If the office that hands out ID cards is only open 9-5 Mon-Fri, for example, a voter who must work during this time and can't afford to miss work may not be able to get ID.

This is a feature not a bug. Fraud is rare, but barriers to minorities and the poor having say are a real concern.

I don’t really buy this. This is more an artifact of the US (insanely) not having any form of national ID.

It’s not for you to buy. This is a well studied, well analyzed area because the GOP wants voter ID laws to reduce minorities and the poor at the polls.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-we-know-about-vote...

Oh I know that.

To be clear what I don’t buy is voter ID having a suppressive effect iff we had an actual national ID

Plenty of countries have no national photo ID. UK, Norway and Denmark to name three in EU.

What's so great about a national ID except more government control?

Why don't minorities and poor have IDs?

Cause there's sizable opposition to government issued IDs.

IMO, it's bloody retarded that this feature is still non-present in the US, resulting in all the pseudo ids like driver's licenses and SSNs.

Not everyone has a car, and if you don’t have a car, then you probably don’t have a passport, and if you don’t have a car or passport, then you likely don’t have a valid photo ID.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-we-know-about-vote...

We don't need ID in the UK, just turn up.

While this is true, it's a little disingenuous with regards to safe elections.

In the UK you must pre-register for a single voting location, and then when you turn up to vote they cross your name off so you can't come in again.

Sure but getting on the electoral register (to my knowledge) requires no ID either. I think this is a big part as to why postal voting fraud happens.

It doesn't require ID but is verified against other records and against the electoral register in other regions, i.e. you can't register in two different places. When housemates have moved out I have received letters asking me to re-confirm who is living in the house for the electoral register.

> I think this is a big part as to why postal voting fraud happens.

It might happen, but it is exceptionally rare. The impact of introducing voter ID laws would cause a far larger decrease in election validity due to voter suppression than postal voting fraud causes.