Voting is a right. But how do you determine whether the person voting actually HAS that right? What's to stop me from going to the neighboring state and voting?
This issue has always had me torn. On the one hand, I realize that voter fraud is not really a thing. And, as I said, I recognize that the real agenda behind voter ID laws, at least on the right, is disenfranchising poor and minority voters. But I still can't get past the fact that we are expected to show IDs for any number of things far more trivial than voting. Some of those things are rights too. I have a right to own a dog, but I have to register that dog, and in order to do so I need to show an ID. I have a right to be a fisherman, but in order to do so I need to get a fishing license, for which I need to show an ID. I have a right to keep and bear arms, but in order to exercise that right I have to show an ID. I have a right to drive a car, but... Well, you get the point. The anal-retentive in me simply cannot accept that we have to show IDs for virtually every aspect of modern life, but when it comes to choosing our leaders people are just expected to believe that we are who we say we are. Why? In what other context would that ever be accepted? That's why the only solution I can see is to provide free IDs.
I would argue that you don't have a right to do any of those things (aside, for some very strange reason, the ownership of a gun), but that's a discussion for another time. My point is that while you may accept that you have to show IDs for all those things, I don't accept that. More to the point, for some of the things you mentioned, the idea of having to show an ID is laughable to me. I've owned a dog, and never had to show ID to register it. I've held a fishing license, and never had to show ID to get it. Until 2009, there were religious exemptions in Alberta that allowed some minorities to get driver's licenses without photos on them (and while I do see the reason behind photo IDs in that case, I still feel the 2009 change was one for the worse).
As for guns, well, that's a whole other issue, isn't it, because in many parts of your fine country, many of them the same places instituting voter ID laws, people would slap you for suggesting such a thing.
People get IDs. More to the point, people get first IDs. At some point none of us had an ID, and then we did. So obviously it's not an insurmountable problem. We simply lack the will to fix it.
No, it's not an insurmountable problem, but even you have to admit that as far as your obtaining of your first ID went, you probably had some things going for you that made it a lot easier for you than it is for many others. You probably had a birth certificate—plenty of people don't. You probably had a fixed address—plenty of people don't. In my case, here, where a valid photo ID is apparently required to get a driver's license, I'm assuming the logic is that most people will get their license while they are in school and have a valid school ID card to use. Well, I'm not in school, I didn't get a driver's license while I was there, so where does that leave me?
Sure, it's not an insurmountable problem if enough resources are put behind it, and enough exceptions are made to requirements for ID to get ID. And here we find the solution: vouching. Because there is, in fact, one form of ID I've found I can presently get (albeit at significant expense, but if we're only looking for solutions, we can set that part aside for now). The one form of photo ID I can obtain is a Possession and Acquisition License—a gun license, in layman's terms. And to get that, I merely need to print out a photo of myself and have one other person, an adult who has known me for at least one year, sign an affidavit affirming that the photo is of me. That's it, that's all. No other identification, no other requirements to prove I am who I say I am.
If that's all that's necessary for me to get a semiautomatic rifle, excuse me if I feel it's absolutely absurd I or anyone else should be required to jump through more hoops in order to drive a car or vote.