Reply #28: The types of IDs ordained in the various Republican initiatives...

[Mister Ed]

...are already in the possession of folks living comfortably (who, statistically, tend toward voting Republican), but are less often possessed by poor folk (who tend to vote Democratic). It'll be neither quick nor cheap for poor folk to obtain those types of IDs, and so fewer of them will vote. That's the aim of the Republican initiatives.

These sorts of hindrances to voting were often used to deter Blacks from voting in the Jim-Crow south. "Poll Taxes" were another common ruse: the tax would be an amount that was affordable to whites, but prohibitively expensive to poor blacks. For good reason, these tactics were made illegal.

Requiring expensive, difficult-to-obtain forms of ID would be a modern poll tax, with the same aim: to keep the poor foils from voting.