Should photo ID be required for voting?

[Mahkato]

My state allows same-day voter registration. If you aren't a registered voter, you go to the registration table before you visit the polling station, and either present them with an ID, a proof of residence (current utility bill or phone bill showing your address, etc.), or have a previously-registered voter vouch for you ("Bill lives in this precinct, I promise."). The kicker is that one registered voter can vouch for up to twenty unregistered voters. You can literally bring in a busload of people, have one local registered voter vouch for them, and they can all vote. As you may have guessed, it's pretty easy to vote fraudulently here. Requiring a govt-issued photo ID to vote is a popular suggestion.

On one hand, requiring an id from the state government to vote on government elections has dirty implications. Government essentially determines who can vote. In reality, today this is far from being an issue, and the same could be said for voter registration in the first place. I think there needs to be an alternative method for those who do not have or do not want a government issued id. Reform should really start with cleaning up voter registration data.


On the other hand, election fraud is very dangerous and undermines the will of the people. It threatens liberty etc. Photo ID would discourage a lot of fraud.


I kinda like the dipping a finger in UV ink solution. Even that has issues with total privacy. No matter the approach, a certain amount of personal privacy and anonymity must be given up to contribute in representative government. There will always be governmental control of voting with the potential for abuse.

So what's the best way to ensure each person votes only once?

[Mahkato]

Anyone?

[MelissaWV]

Verification is only as good as those doing the verifying, so I've never been a fan of the photo ID thing. No one really looks at those anywhere near as closely as they pretend. If you don't look like your photo, do you honestly think they'll boot you? Or will the person squint, tilt their head, and say you do SORT of look like your photo, and who would fake being a voter, so why not?

You should be vetted when you register to vote, if we're going to have registration at all. This might involve jumping through some hoops like the ones you describe, but the time to do it is way beforehand... not when you show up to vote.

[pcosmar]

My voting place knows me. (Twp Hall), showing ID is only a formality.

[erowe1]

We require government issued photo ID to vote in Indiana, and I like that a lot.

[Nate-ForLiberty]

As long as the requirements to acquire a photo ID are not abused in order to effect the outcome of a political race, I think it's ok.