Re: Mail-In Voting

On Apr 9, 2024 at 6:31:31 PM PDT, "The Horny Goat" <lcraver@home.ca> wrote:
 

On Tue, 9 Apr 2024 21:05:42 -0400, FPP <fredp1571@gmail.com> wrote:
>

Some people do not drive, hence, no Driver's License.
Tell the King of the Morons that.

>
Which is why our province's Department of Motor Vehicles also issues
certified ID cards

 So does every state DMV, something Effa pretends not to know about because
it's inconvenient for his quest to win on Usenet today.
 

A plethora of barriers to obtaining IDs plague millions of Americans.
 For some, possessing IDs may seem commonplace and easy to accomplish. A piece of plastic buried deep in a wallet, and often taken for granted. In reality, a multitude of significant barriers exist that keep people from acquiring identification, which has increasingly become a necessity in everyday life.  Reasons an individual might need to change or update their IDs include changing name or citizenship status, updating gender, having an expired ID or moving. Nearly 42 million people moved locations in 2021.  When these updates are needed, Americans are forced down an often long, winding and confusing process. In order to obtain or update new or existing IDs, individuals must present a  significant array of other identification documents. As a result, the process can often be circular, with Americans struggling to possess one piece of documentation that can then snowball and block individuals from even getting IDs in the first place.
 According to the study, between 15 and 18 million people in the U.S. lack access to documents proving their birth or citizenship, which can be integral to acquiring other forms of IDs.  Identifying documents are also very expensive. Transgender individuals experience this when completing a legal name change to conform with their gender identity. According to the report, 34% of transgender people paid more than $250 to complete the change, with an additional 11% spending more than $500. Even worse, 35% said they had not changed their name because they couldn’t afford the burdensome costs. Birth certificates average over $50 and driver’s licenses cost as much as $89.
 Other issues include limited availability of ID services and patchwork policies. Most offices only operate during business hours, and are so sparse that some rural individuals have to travel a significant distance — a cumbersome barrier to those who lack transportation or can not afford to skip work.
 Maintaining identification is disproportionately burdensome for minority and low income communities.  Discriminatory and prejudicial ID practices pose major challenges for certain groups and are often rooted in decades of history. During the Jim Crow era, many Black people were denied access to certain hospitals, and many were never given a birth certificate. As such, communities of color are especially likely to lack a driver’s license.  While only 8% of white Americans do not have a driver’s license, 21% of Black Americans and 23% of Hispanic Americans do not have access to this form of ID. Consequences of this are numerous, but one striking example is that 13.8% of Black households lack a checking or savings account compared to just 2.5% of white households. IDs are required to open these accounts.
 A bar graph showing what % of certain communities lack IDs. 8% of white people, 12% of U.S. adults, 21% of people aged 70 and above, 21% of Black people, 23% of Hispanic people and 68% of transgender people lack a valid, accurate driver's license.
When it comes to indigenous and Native communities, many are born at home or on Native lands, and therefore do not have birth certificates. While many indigenous nations have their own IDs, they are often not accepted by U.S. officials. Native Americans are also more likely to lack a permanent home address and live in poverty, which can pose major issues for securing IDs like a driver’s license.  Those who are unhoused face a similar problem — they too usually lack a permanent mailing address, which makes proof of residency requirements especially burdensome, and the costs associated with getting an ID can create a nearly insurmountable obstacle.  Transgender individuals especially struggle with obtaining accurate IDs — 68% lack IDs that are reflective of their name and identity, and because of the high costs of acquiring IDs and other pieces of documentation, low-income Americans struggle as well, especially since they are disproportionately likely to work jobs that do not allow for time off to go and acquire IDs.
 ID requirements can take a massive toll on voters at the polls.
 While lack of ID can be detrimental to numerous facets of life, one of the most significant is the impact it can have on an individual’s right to vote. This was not always the case — before the 2006 election, no state had ever required government-issued photo ID to vote. Now, such requirements exist in numerous states.
 Fifteen states require some form of ID to vote, 10 of which must be a photo ID and an additional 12 states request, but do not require, photo ID. Some states also require ID to register to vote, which can similarly cause significant problems. The report highlighted a set of studies in Kansas that found “in just the first four years after the state implemented its voter registration law in 2013, over 63,000 people were blocked from registering to vote,” almost all of whom were eligible to vote.