The Blue Board

11% of eligible voters don't have a form of identification. To make a broad statement like 11% of the voting population is "totally worthless" and does "absolutely nothing" is foolish.

1) Be realistic, man. If they aren't collecting a hand-out, then those people probably aren't going to be voting anyway.

2) I'm in college. I have loans to pay off, and spending money for a new ID to vote is a frivolous expense. An ID is not food, a roof over my head, tuition, textbooks, or utilities, so it's not an essential expense I can justify. There is currently no proposal for free identification for me, so my voice is potentially being silenced.

Why would anyone want to silence the voice of young Americans?
Oh right, to fix the election for your own political party because young people tend to be more liberal. The IDs need to be free, or this is simply election rigging.

So if ID's were free, you would be on board? And you honestly don't have a form of identification?

EDIT: BTW, when you are out of school and need to get a job, you will need an ID. So you will have that additional expense at probably your poorest moment in life.

And no, I still believe this is a flawed proposal that panders to gullible conservatives in an election year.

I've seen some very good fake IDs, I know that this isn't going to cut down on fraud. If someone wants to commit voter fraud, they're still going to have the means to do it.

That is my sole driver in this, how'd you know?

So if you drive, you are driving with an expired license which would be a ticket if you get caught. Also how are you applying for loans or getting jobs without an ID?

In many states you can't even buy a beer with an expired license. And it is no good for any official reason anywhere.

It's $18 I realize you are a broke college student, but my God you should be able to come up with that in just a few weeks just by saving your change.

Sounds like you need to be a college student that has a job, and if you have one you should really look at requesting more hours.

I mean if you can't come up with $18 now, what is going to happen to you when a real expense pops up one day? Which they do BTW.

This just doesn't make any sense to me.

I has the solution

Get job on the weekends working 1 hour per week. Work for 3 weeks, get license, drive to employer and tell him you quit.

Next he will tell us he never buys alcohol, or eats fast food. Never does it... not even once!

Oh and BTW he can check his account balance on his smartphone no need to go down to the ATM...and of course he can't go into the bank because they will require an ID at the counter.

Damn, everyone's so quick to pass judgment on a college student and his finances without knowing a thing about him. Must be nice.

My issue is that he is getting thousands of dollars either from his parents or from loans. Either way, $18 is small enough to allocate from either of those sources to get a ID.

When I think of people in need who can't afford an ID for voting purposes, I think of a single mother with 5 kids, working 2 jobs, not a college student. The only student who would be at risk would be the ones who come from poor families, but are in school off of an academic scholarship. In that case, they should qualify for a free ID just like any others who truely can't afford it.

If the poster in question is one of those people, that's fine, I understand. If not, I don't want to hear that $18 would hold him back from placing a vote.

Many laws are enacted not because there is evidence of past indiscretions or violations but in an effort to prevent future ones.

Most countries require some form of ID to vote. There are a couple of exceptions such as Denmark, Australia, New Zealand and Centre Hall, PA. I believe it's Sweden where if the voting precinct clerk knows you, ID is not required.

Many countries issue a voter registration card which must be presented in order to cast a vote.

Many countries such as India and Ireland allow for alternate identification - I believe Canada allows the use of a library card.

Countries such as Spain, Greece, France, Malta, Belgium, and Italy provide national identity documents to their citizens to use for many purposes including voting.

It is still free to vote. You just need an ID to do so. If we are providing free ID's to anyone who truely cannot afford it, then what is the issue? That would effectively eliminate what you are using as a technicality.