Originally Posted by kane

Allow me to add a little reality to this discussion. My mom would be a perfect example of someone affected by a voter ID law.

My mom is 74 years old. 2 years ago she moved into an assisted living center. About 5 years ago her drivers license expired. It had been a few years since she had driven anyway so she had no intention of driving again, but she needed an ID. The problem was that she was in a nursing home with some major health issues at the time so it was impossible for me to get her to the DMV to get a state issued ID card. I called the DMV and they happily sent her an application for a non-photo ID. She filled it out, sent it back and now has a state ID without a picture on it.

With a non-picture ID she has gotten on medicare and medicaid and gotten a new social security card because the one she had for most of her life had her name spelled wrong on it. She has pretty much gone about her life without any problems whats so ever. However, if she had to get a photo ID it would cost her.

Here's why. She was born in 1940 at home. She is unsure if her birth certificate (which she no longer has a copy of) is in Illinois or Florida. We could look online and eventually find out. At best she would likely have to pay to get a copy of her birth certificate then pay to get a photo ID in our state. Total cost would likely be around $75-$100 depending on the cost of the birth certificate and anything else she may need.

In my mom's case my brother and I would pay for it for her. However, there are a lot of people that live where she lives who don't have family to help them out. They end up with about $50-$75 in extra money each month after their care is paid for. For someone like that, this could be a major burden.

All of the studies done show that voter fraud is almost non-existent, yet the republican party continues to work to fix a problem that isn't broken in an effort to hopefully keep a few more people from the polls that might vote against them.