They are only popular due to the widespread misconception that voter fraud is a serious issue (it is not, there is very little evidence of it being an issue at all, very few actual cases, extremely rare) or straight up delusions like believing non-citizens are voting (which is practically impossible due to other already existing preventative practices), while ignoring the evidence that voter ID laws have been shown to have negligible to no actual impact on voter fraud anyway.

People also either are not aware of, do not care, or at worst even support all of the harmful effects such as potentially lowering voter turnout, especially among low income voters and people of color, and causing issues for many transgender people who do not have ID that accurately reflects their name or gender, etc.