Why is requiring a person to pay for a state approved photo ID in order to vote not a poll tax?

[Chasstev365]

Unless a state provides all its citizens with a free IDs, it's making people pay to vote.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Unless the state walks up to you and hands it to you, it is a poll tax.

Voter fraud does not exist, as long as we allow any discussion that intimates it does, democracy loses.

[louis-t]

2. It is. eom

[Laurian]

3. It is. They get away with it because the judiciary has

been politicized and will not recognize it as such.

[liberal N proud]

4. Free is not free

Even if the ID was provided free, which none are, it still costs you to get one.

You have to have the means to get to the government ID issuing location, formerly the BMV Wichita will cost you. Either bus fare, cab fare or cost of fuel, you just paid for an ID to the purpose of voting. That defines it as a poll tax.

[Hoyt]

5. What state is doing that? Also, is the photo ID the only thing accepted?

[rogue emissary]

6. In a few states voter ID laws have been overturned on that bases.

Most states that enact voter ID laws have very conservatives judges. So they uphold the law or allow for a weak compromise. Like it's free to get an ID but you still have to go to a state capitol office to get one.

[wildeyed]

7. It's a poll tax.

Also consider that in many places you need a car and a day off to go to DMV. If you had a car, youn ALREADY went to DMV, so you are forcing a labor and time tax on people who can least afford it.

The threat of voter disenfranchisement to democracy FAR outweighs the threat of voter fraud. Voter fraud barely exists. Anyone who says it does is lying.

Tell them that if we are going to have voter ID, then it has to be a separate ID and ALL citizens must show up at designated location on a weekday, pay money and wait in line to get one. That usually shuts them up because they sure as shit don't want to waste a day standing in line for a pointless piece of ID when the current system works just fine.

[dogman]

8. Republicans don't believe the poor are people.

Look at their latest meme comparing animals in the wild with food stamp recipients. I've seen posts from them on FB stating they would no longer be supporting the filthy animals after his inauguration. This isn't just the president but also the GOP led congress and some Dems who feel they serve the overlooked working man by damning the poor.

[Tanuki]

9. Even if the i.d. itself is free, in many locales there are issues of accessibility, and non-drivers,

including the elderly, disabled, and those too poor to own a car, are selectively disadvantaged if they can't get to the i.d. office. Or the office is only open 9-5, so you would have to miss work and lose wages. Or you might have to pay a fee to another state to obtain an official copy of your birth certificate if your current state requires it as part of the voter i.d. process. There are many ways in which this screws people financially and constitutes a de facto poll tax, and it was certainly designed in a way that the hardship and disenfranchisement is unequal in distribution and voting outcome.

[Greybnk48]

10. Jim Crow poll tax, n/t

[Ms. Toad]

11. Be careful - providing all citizens with free IDs is STILL a poll tax.

Voter IDs still require proof of citizenship. The cost of obtaining proof of citizenship is infinite, for some, because there is no proof available. For many others, the cost of obtaining the necessary documents is extraordinary. In some instances, travel to more than one location to obtain the original birth certificate (not all are available by mail), to multiple (in some instances) jurisdictions to obtain certified copies of name changes, legal actions - in some instances - to retroactively register a birth (where, perhaps a midwife, was denied the right to register your birth - a higher risk if you were African American in the south) - that now requires obtaining testimony from someone older than you, present at your birth, who can attest to your birth (you may imagine that many older people, long past the age at which they have a current driver's license also don't have older relatives present at their birty; if they do, it may be difficult to obtain the proper evidentiary proof.

And so on.

So please don't suggest that providing "free" photo IDs resolves the poll tax problem. Some of the most regressive states already provide that option and are contending that it eliminates the constitutional barriers.