> In my case, because the USA does not have a national ID,

Solution: Make the USA passport card free and compulsory.

You can make it free, but you can't make it compulsory. While the constitution allows for a national ID scheme in the sense of making a card and issuing it, actually using it for anything would be near impossible.

https://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1214&con...

There is the Bank ID formula to work around that, at least for the nation state checks: "The Identity Card belongs to the Union, and each Citizen of the Union is obligated to use it as specified in this section of the Code, as enforced by the President of the Union."

> Solution: Make the USA passport card free and compulsory.

Great! All that's left is addressing all the challenges I brought up around making obtaining one simple for everyone (no, drive 40 minutes to your nearest post-office doesn't count), and making voting universally easily accessible to everyone and you have my support!

Given that as far as I know not a single lawmaker who has been pushing Voter ID has backed your suggestion, much less put any effort into addressing my other concerns, I don't think I'll be supporting Voter ID anytime soon.

> Solution: Make the USA passport card free and compulsory.

That would be the ultimate solution, and, as it was mentioned, something that has been proven effective in a very large chunk of the developed world.

But having spent the last five years in the US, I think this will trigger the opposition of most conservative pundits, politicians, and attorneys across the country. Ironically, these are the same people who advocate for stringent voter ID laws.

> who is unwilling to pay to get said state ID

Voting ID's are free in all states they are required.

> or does not have the means to get to an office.

This could be said for anything...it is funny that the liberal American solution to lack of access to ID offices is to get rid of ID's...not, you know, improve access to said offices (subsidized Ubers that link into an ID appointment, maybe only available every year/whenever you need to renew).

> it is funny that the liberal American solution to lack of access to ID offices is to get rid of ID's...not, you know, improve access to said offices

It's funny that the conservative American solution to lack of access to ID offices is just deny them a vote... not, you know, improve access to said offices.

Seriously, what do you think the conservative reaction to giving a tech darling like Uber taxpayer money to cart the poor around? I can hardly imagine the backlash.

Also why assume I'm a liberal? Not requiring an ID has long big a conservative principal. It's only recently that requiring one has become a republican one. Turns out the world isn't as simple as conservatives vs liberals.

>I have yet to meet anyone advocating for ID to vote who actually wants to address these by both making said ID free for all Americans

I've seen the opposite, not a single person who wants voter ID is against making it freely available to those who can't afford it. In fact, voter ID is already required in a number of states, and not only are there free options available in those states (because it would be a poll tax otherwise), but voter ID's in those states have not shown to decrease minority turnout in elections.

It's a completely fake issue.

> I've seen the opposite, not a single person who wants voter ID is against making it freely available

I have. I've met plenty of people who say if you aren't willing to spend $25 on your ID you don't deserve to vote. But that's really besides the point given that it only addresses one cherry picked issue out of a number I brought up. Doesn't matter if the ID is free if you have to spend 3 hours bussing to and from, waiting in line, and bussing back from getting it. Or if there is no public transit available. Doesn't matter if the ID is free if there is an hour long line because there aren't enough polling places in your area and we've banned mail-in and drop off ballots. Or if you are simply too infirm to make it to said polling place. Or aren't willing to wait in a large crowd of a hundred of your closest strangers I'm the middle of a pandemic.

How many of those pushing for voter ID are prepared to spend tax dollars on those issues? Texas certainly isn't.

> but voter ID's in those states have not shown to decrease minority turnout in elections.

Depends on what studies your looking at https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-14-634

I suspect you are referring to this one which a number of conservative outlets have been circulating recently: https://www.nber.org/papers/w25522

They conviently never mentioned that it also found that voter ID had no impact on fraud either.

> It's a completely fake issue.

Voter ID to prevent election fraud is a fake issue by the same metric. Yet I assume you are genuine. Why can't you extend the same courtesy to me?

You can see Voter ID laws by state - https://ballotpedia.org/Voter_identification_laws_by_state and look at voter turnout. There is no correlation between those laws and turnout, which makes you wonder why people pretend there is...

There is no correlation between those laws and voter fraud, which makes you wonder why people pretend there is...

Well the problem with having no laws requiring voter ID is that you literally can't catch fraud...since you don't check for ID to see if the person should be voting.

But as serious as people take elections, it's absurd to think people wouldn't do things they shouldn't when their favorite (or least favorite) candidate is on the ballot. You think everyone just plays by the rules?

> You think everyone just plays by the rules?

Of course not! Whoever claimed this? I don't think anyone has claimed that there are no instances of fraud, to do so would be asinine, we have caught confirmed cases of fraud.

> Well the problem with having no laws requiring voter ID is that you literally can't catch fraud

The people currently in jail for it would beg to differ. This gentleman perhaps: https://news.yahoo.com/trump-supporter-charged-voter-fraud-0... Or perhaps this instance of ballot harvesting: https://www.canyon-news.com/georgia-whistle-blower-admits-to...

The reason there is so little voter fraud is the reward is so little and the risk is so great. I cast my grandmas ballot and risk 5 years in a federal prison for what? That vote has a lower chance of swaying the election that I'd have of winning the lottery with a lottery ticket. To perform fraud on the scale required to sway an election you need to coordinate a large group of people (for a Presidential election across multiple states) and all it takes is one defector to bring it all down. Frankly, if your going to attempt this scale, your not doing to attack the system anywhere that Voter ID helps. If I send people to cast ballots that's hundreds of events where I risk getting caught, no you'd want to inject ballots after they've been collected. Or some other scheme that avoids having to cast hundreds or thousands of illegal ballots individually.

In fact the reason that this is important and that people take this seriously is exactly why one should be suspicious of any politician looking to change the rules, especially when there is zero evidence to support said rule change. Who has more incentive to sway the election than the politicians in office? And there is absolutely zero legal risk in proposing a law that just so happens to help you get re-elected, unlike the individual commit voter fraud. SO politicians have all the incentive and none of the risk.

And we know they aren't afraid to use it. While specific instances are debated, no one denies gerrymandering exists. So yes, when I look at Voter ID, I don't just look at it by itself, I look at what's included in these "election security" bills that include stricter Voter ID. It's never opening more polling placing, allowing voting on multiple days, or any other measure designed to make it easier to vote. Instead it's always closing drive up voting, mail in voting, disallowing votes not cast on election days, and limiting the number of polling places in high population areas.

Then when I oppose this bill I must be "pro voter fraud" because otherwise why would I be against Voter ID? Nevermind those other measures in the bill.

There has been some motion on the democratic side towards support for Voter ID that is free, universal, and easy to get:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/21/democrats...

Awesome! I suspect if we had started by making a point to make sure everyone has IDs instead of starting with "let's require IDs knowing full well that some people don't have them" this would've been a minor issue and we could be done already.

Yeah, the challenge there is that there are loud partisans on both sides of the aisle against national-id based on freedom from government/mark-of-the-beast concerns.

The integrity of our vote is much greater than any of the issues you brought up. Every issue you have against a national ID can be solved easily.

As many have mentioned the USPS could serve as the backbone with ID cards being printed in kiosks on the spot. The USPS already provides the means for obtaining your passport.

It's not clear to me why anyone falls for the rhetoric of ID's suppressing or disenfranchising voters, it's a lot of partisan nonsense. "Someone think of the homeless and disabled elderly, how will they vote" when we all know the reality is they don't.

> The integrity of our vote is much greater than any of the issues you brought up.

The integrity of our vote includes ensuring every eligible voter is able to do so without obstacles. As far as I can tell this is currently the primary threat to the integrity of the vote we are facing.

> Every issue you have against a national ID can be solved easily.

Great let's solve it then! As mentioned actually solve those issues instead of hand waving them away and I'll be pro-voter ID. But as far as I can tell no one is trying to solve them, especially not the people currently pushing voter ID.

> As many have mentioned the USPS could serve as the backbone

Not everyone has a USPS nearby. Not everyone has a car to drive there. I don't accept denying these people the vote.

> "Someone think of the homeless and disabled elderly, how will they vote" when we all know the reality is they don't.

Your reality is news to me, and I don't accept that it's okay to make it hard for anyone to vote just because you don't think they want to.

USA does not have national voting, as voting is done in the States. It doesn't need a national ID for that.

I would be very much in favor of a free universal ID that can be used to vote. Then there's no objection, right?

As long as we also address the other concerns in my post. You know ensuring that everyone has easy access to getting that ID (just being free isn't enough it needs to be accessible, as does voting).

Now you just have to convince everyone else pushing for voter ID to actually put in the work (and spend the money) to get that done, and we can get this thing rolling!

Good luck!