In response to:
I will have no problem with voter ID laws once we make having a state or federal government issued ID a requirement by law. In fact, I agree that it would be a good thing. However, as it currently stands, proponents of voter ID laws want to require individuals to purchase something that they are not legally required to have in order to exercise one of their most basic rights as a citizen. To me that sounds suspiciously like a poll tax. Do I think the call for voter ID laws is racist? No, for the most part it is not racist but until having a state issued ID is required by law of every citizen it is wrong to require one to exercise the right to vote.
Photo voter ID laws, according to Attorney General Eric Holder, are a "poll tax." "Many of those without IDs," Holder recently told the NAACP, "would have to travel great distances to get them -- and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them."
Photo voter ID opponent Keesha Gaskins, senior counsel in the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, writes: "While these laws are allegedly passed to secure elections, they impact communities of color in ways only reflected in our Jim Crow past. Looking at voter ID laws alone, we know that although 11 percent of Americans...
Photo ID is readily obtainable for a nominal fee -- which will be waived in cases of true hardship. the only reason for a US citizen to not have an ID is that said citizen has CHOSEN to forgo obtaining it.
Choices have consequences. Those who want to vote will CHOOSE to obtain an ID. Those who CHOOSE not to are saying that their unwillingness to make the effort of obtaining ID is more important to them than their desire to vote. They have the right to make that choice. They do not have a special right to avoid the consequences of that choice.