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Can somedy explain to me the issue with the voter ID law they want to pass in the US? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 9 hours ago by to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
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First things first, I don't doubt it is a bad thing, considering who supports it and who doesn't.

But my question is what exactly is the issue and what is the current and proposed voting process when it comes to IDs?

Here in my EU country, you have to show some version of a government ID, be it an ID card, drivers license or passport. And we don't have to pre-register to vote.

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[–] 2 points 6 hours ago (8 children)

Can you explain how it works in the EU?

Does the EU specify the rules for how voting works in EU countries?

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  • [–] 3 points 5 hours ago* (2 children)

    No, each EU country has its own electoral system. The EU is currently a federation of mostly independent countries. Most or all of these countries have voter ID laws. This is usually not a problem since everyone can be reasonably assumed to have a government-issued ID document.

    To give an example, in Germany your birth is always documented. As a citizen you always receive an ID card when you turn 16; in fact, you are legally required to have a valid one that includes current information. For example, if you move you have to make an appointment with the citizens' center in your new municipality to change your registration and they'll put a correction sticker with your new address on the ID card. If you change your name you have to get a new one, which costs about 50 bucks; same if you lose yours or if it expires. People under 24 and poor people get rebates, in the latter case of up to 100%.

    We don't have a voter roll per se; all citizens receive voting invitations by mail several weeks in advance of an election. These are used in conjunction with your ID card to get access to your assigned polling place. The law mandates a certain density of polling places so nobody has to travel too far or wait for too long. The invitation also includes everything needed to register for mail voting including a postage-paid return envelope so poverty isn't a factor in whether you can vote by mail.

    So a lot of the criticism about voter ID laws you hear in the United States doesn't apply here because ID cards are ubiquitous (and have been for a long time) and we go out of our way to make sure poor people aren't disadvantaged.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 hour ago

    In Finland there is no requirement to have an ID card. And within the Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland), citizens of Nordic countries are allowed to roam without any ID whatsoever. There is a requirement that I must be able to prove my identity, however, and that can mean some hassle with having to visit a police station for many hours in that country, so it's advisable to just have at least some form of ID card on you. Also, Finland is basically an island and the ship companies to Sweden require you to prove your identity with a government-issued ID card or passport.

    And then there's Denmark, which often requires you to have a passport in order to cross the country's border. But I am allowed to exist in Denmark as a Finnish person without any form of passport or ID. Just not cross the border :D

    In Finland you can also vote without an ID if you are able to prove your identity in some other manner. For example, if you've got someone with you that can vouch for you being you and has some way to prove their identity.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 hours ago

    In contrast, most states issue the main identification credential through the Department of Motor Vehicles and will only have offices open in areas to meet demand for automotive registration purposes. So, a lot of inner city areas don't have many offices to get ID cards and they usually are only open during working hours.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (4 children)

    When you are born or move, you have to register at the municipality. Then when it comes time for the elections, you get a voting pass in the mail a couple weeks before. On the day of the election, you just take your pass and any form of government ID (either current, or expired no more than 5 years ago) to a polling station in you municipality and vote.

    If you cannot go yourself, you can send another person with your voting pass and a copy of your ID. But usually, the polling places are very close to where you live and easily accessible by walking, biking or public transport.

    If you live abroad, you just get a mail in ballot that you send back by mail.

    This is in my country of course. Others are probably slightly different.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 hours ago* (3 children)

    Ok, that's kind of what I expected.

    So, one way to look at the US system is that the US as a whole corresponds in a way to the EU. Individual states in the US would correspond to EU countries.

    Of course, there are certainly differences. But in some ways individual US states are treated as separate, sovereign entities. The US Constitution leaves all management of elections up to the individual states. There aren't really federal elections (well, apart from the electoral college, but let's not get into that). There are state elections to fill federal offices. It is seen by most as inappropriate for the federal government to get involved in US elections.

    When you ask why the US doesn't have a national ID, it's like asking why citizens of EU countries aren't required to have an EU ID. It's more appropriate to ask why individual states don't have state IDs.

    As you can imagine, there are 50 different variations on what the rules for such an ID would be.

    However, the biggest issue with having any kind of required, state-issued ID is resistance to giving the government more ability to track us. This despite the most virulently anti-surveillance people regularly updating their most intimate details in Facebook and Instagram.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 hour ago

    EU does mandate how the national ID cards must look and what data must be written on them. It does not mandate that they have to exist, though. But in practice they do exist everywhere, and they look just the same anywhere in EU.

    In UK they either don't have a national ID at all, or almost nobody has it. But it's not relevant here because it's not an EU country.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 4 hours ago (1 child)

    That's interesting. Though one thing I will add is that IDs from any EU country is accepted by all other EU countries. I actually don't live in the EU country I am from, and before voting with my drivers license on local elections, I voted with my passport from my own country. Ah and another thing is that you can only vote for the local elections if you are not a citizen, even if you are from another EU country.

    So in many ways, I think there is more interoperability between EU countries than between US states. Even with drivers licenses is very flexible. Where I am, you have to exchange it for a local drivers license within 15 years of moving (though you have 4 month to resgiter a car with plates from another country). In some cases even things like unemployment and disability pension continues being paid if you move countries.

    As for the tracking, I agree with you for the latter part. People don't realize how much they are being tracked and exploited by mega corps. Anyway, even without a state or federal ID there, you still have to pay taxes and whatnot, so its not like the government has any less info about you. It just becomes an additional way to male life harder for low income people, because it raises the barrier of entry for support from the government.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 hours ago

    States have some reciprocity, the recognizing of another state's license as it's own, but if isn't always universal. For instance, the USA is going through a two decade plus upgrade to driver's licenses and non-license ID's to include proof of citizenship because a lot of states dragged their feet in implementing the additional filing systems required. Even then, states are still allowed to issue non-compliant ID's and people will get them because they don't want to spend the extra time to get them.

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