No. of Recommendations: 11
Countries that require specific government ID to vote generally don't have arbitrary timelines and high costs to *obtain* that ID.
Some stats:
- Over 90% of all countries require some form of ID to vote, yet 14 US states do not require ID to vote
- 91% of voting-age Americans are estimated to already have the needed documentation to vote under the SAVE act
- $20 is the estimated average cost to obtain a birth certificate (varies by state)
- $35 is the estimated average cost to obtain driver's license (varies by state)
- Less than 1% of Americans are estimated to have neither a driver's license NOR birth certificate
Also worth noting is that many US states that have the highest costs to obtain these documents (e.g., Washington, Minnesota, Vermont, California) are also the most likely ones to temporarily/permanently wave or lower those fees for their citizens if the SAVE act passed, given their politics.
Questions a person may want to ask themselves:
- Do you consider the average $55 cost to be 'high' to obtain these two forms of ID? Forms of ID which are also beneficial for a person to have for other reasons?
- Do you find it acceptable that almost 30% of US states continue to require no ID to vote, while over 90% of all countries in the world have deemed it important to require that their citizens have ID to vote?
- Does it make sense that ID is required for all sorts of far less trivial things, but not to vote for our governing leaders who create laws that impact us all? Examples: buying some cough medicines, getting a library card, boarding a flight, cashing a check, renting a car, joining a gym, buying a fishing/hunting license.