How do voter ID laws disenfranchise?

[Veovis]

We all know that the recent spate of voter ID laws are simply a ploy to disenfranchise potential voters who are mostly economically disadvantaged, elderly or non-white, but why exactly does it work? I was under the impression that getting a government-issued ID was fairly simple - the DMV issues non-drivers' license IDs which I assume are available to everyone.

Any input?

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

It costs money to get one issued, there's also a problem of transportation and even time for a lot of working people, particularly those who work multiple jobs throughout the day.

Also in my state in order to get a license issued you need either a birth certificate or a passport, a social security card is not enough. It may be surprising but a lot of people don't have their birth certificates and it can be difficult to obtain them, especially if they've moved away from the state the were born in, they also cost money. A passport is prohibitively expensive for a great many people as well.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

In the US its state by state.Without a driver's license or a passport it can often be very difficult to prove one is who one says they are.For a time I didn't have a driver's license and my passport expired. I tried to get a "Mass ID" (Massachusetts identification). First the DMV people were extremely rude and nasty (which is typical of most DMVs, employees are literally trained to be that way). Secondly it was very difficult to collect what I needed for a Mass ID. I needed utility bills for the past 6 months. This was impossible because I subletted (technically illegal) and the person I subletted from didn't pay any of the bills either. I had to go 3 or 4 steps. The utility bills also had to have my name on it.

All my other documents had expired.A long story but I had legally changed my name. I couldn't use my birth certificate because I was born in a different state and that state wouldn't update or amend my birth certificate (or they made it extremely difficult). I was in legal limbo for about 9 months. I don't drink that much but, despite being somewhat over 21 I couldn't buy alcohol, get into a bar or club, or do anything which which requires one to be over 21.

It was a huge bureaucratic mess. I went back to DMV twice. I tried to explain my problem to them but I just got abrupt arrogance and nastiness.

Strangely it was easier to get my US passport renewed than it was to get a state document so I ended up using this for ID.

The system is deliberately designed to make it difficult for working class people.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

To add my own Bureaucratic experience, I had moved out of state and gotten a license to make finding employment easier. When I moved back here I really drug my ass on getting an Ohio license again and ended up waiting til a few weeks before my out of state license expired. If I applied for the Ohio license after my out of state license expired I would have to retake the driving exam again, which would only add even more time to the process.

When I went to get this taken care of I found out about the recent change in the law requiring a Birth Certificate. I didn't have mine and was born in a different state, when I contacted that state about having mine mailed to me for an additional fee I was also told that it would take 6 to 8 weeks to arrive by which time my out of state license would have expired.

Luckily for me I was able to take time off work and drive to the state of my birth and get the birth certificate directly, but it would be unreasonable to expect someone working 2 or even 3 jobs to have the time or the money to do this, even if they weren't in the exact situation I was in (caused by my own laziness) and instead were simply applying for one for the first time.

[Psy]

The bigger issue is getting voters to ID themselves does nothing to secure elections, for example the recent election scandal in Canada was done by the ruling party (the Conservative Party of Canada) impersonating Elections Canada to give registered voters of the opposition party faulty information on where to vote. Which bring up the elephant in the room, when it is the bourgeoisie state rigging the election what good does laws do when the bourgeoisie state is the law, the RCMP (Canadian federal police) can't even investigate the Canadian bourgeoisie state for election fraud as they get their marching orders for that same state and of course the Canadian state has no interest in investing a crime that it committed.

Vote ID laws assumes it is the proletariat that is behind rigged elections when this is silly as the proletariat lacks the means to a election at the same scale as the ruling class.

[blake 3:17]

I'd highly recommend Piven and Cloward's book Why Americans Don't Vote. The history is very interesting, but, yeah, it's basically exclude the poor.