Debate

GA for Democracy just asked me to oppose this bill in my local senate, an updated voter ID bill. GA got a lot of bad publicity for this thing last legislative session, as it was a bad idea and was going to force people without a driver's license (or other acceptable ID for voting) to pay for the right to vote. Which is, you know, a terrible idea. This updated bill requires counties to provide the IDs for free, you just have to get to a DMV or other place that provides them and fill out the paperwork and bring all the supporting documents and blah blah blah. Yes, sure, it's still a pain in the ass...but, it's a free way to get an ID that allows you to vote...I'm having a hard time seeing what's bad about this bill...but I'm also poorly informed when it comes to things like voter IDs. So one of my first questions is, what did people do previously, if they didn't have an acceptable ID? Were they unable to vote? In which case, this is a pretty good thing. What happens to people who can't meet the requirements of the application? i.e. those without a permanent address? It seems to me they were unable to vote previously, so this is a consistent problem rather than one created by this bill...something which will need to be dealt with but perhaps not a reason to oppose this bill...ok. Discuss.