that’s truly what’s preventing some of them from voting?
Valid, unexpired government-issued identification would also help them in many other areas of their lives beyond registering to vote and voting, it would also help them year-round, not just when they’re needed as pawns in election cycles. It’s probable that having identification that doesn’t expire in one, two, three or however many years their jurisdiction issues them for, will open numerous doors for people in need. Such a benefit can hardly have any negative connotations at all.
Multiple multimillionaires and multibillionaires loudly and proudly touted how they provided registration drives, voter education sessions, transportation to polls, and other extremely helpful methods in order to ensure that people would make it to the polls in several local, state and federal elections in 2020. Additionally, some of them paid for bail, bond, parole, probation, appeals, fines, fees, etc. along with legislation and changes of regulations that prevented convicted people from voting. So if it is true that certain minorities simply can’t vote because they lack proper identification, have the purse strings slammed shut now that elections are over?
About 10 years ago, I challenged someone who claimed that getting government-issued identification was impossible by asking him how much beer and alcohol he was able to buy in a year’s time. “Well, that’s completely different,” was his lame reply.
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When you state, “the ID should be free”, I’m not sure if you’re referring to what I proposed in that the rich benefactors assist people in obtaining identification, or if you mean that all government-issued identification in general should be free, or if you mean that specifically for the purpose of voting, identification should be made free. I see a viable path to ensuring that people get identification being paid for by those millionaires and billionaires I mentioned, and unless someone can point it out to me, I don’t see any negative side to it.
As for your point about identification is generally considered to be a drivers license, keep in mind that you and I are in California, a state very much attached to its car culture. There are other places in the US, where a drivers license is not the preeminent form of identification, such as places where fewer people drive and/or own vehicles. Even in California, the push for children to get government-issued identification was a big push when my children were just entering elementary schools over twenty years ago along with the responses to the high-profile crimes that were being committed against children. Programs were being introduced to fingerprint children so that if they were ever kidnapped and whisked off for years or decades, the fingerprint trail offered another avenue for solving cases. Part of those programs also had DMV issuing identification cards for the children with pictures and biographical information, the exact same identification that has always been available to adults who do not drive or cannot drive (for whatever myriad of reasons). Other places beyond California, those with or without car cultures, offer ways for people to acquire identification that is not a drivers license.
While you won’t get an argument from me about your statement that “We should have ID issued to everyone regardless of whether they drive.” However, there are some people who tout privacy issues, enforced government meddling, anarchist views, even those who are using aliases for nefario reasons, some resist that idea. I’m not saying they are right or wrong, I’m not saying you are right or wrong.
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Thriftymaid 