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When it comes to issues of voter identification:
1) A voter should identify themselves in order to obtain a ballot. I think the vast majority agree with this. Providing a photo ID is not unreasonable as a means of establishing identification of a voter. Other means such as vetting should also be sufficient, but if abused in certain communities, limiting ID to government issued photo ID may be permissible.
2) If the sole means accepted at the poll is an ID, a photo ID must be available from the government that meets this requirement.
3) Poll taxes are an unreasonable and unnecessary restriction on the right to vote. As such they are seen as unacceptable by the vast majority, and are rightly prohibited by Federal law.
4) Charging a fee (tax) on an ID document that constitutes the only valid means to vote (or on all documents that constitute options to vote) is an end run around the prohibition on a poll tax, and thus such documents should be available without cost to citizens.
I should like to know if folks feel such a plan would both satisfy the need for election integrity while also not posing an obstacle for any citizen to exercise their right to vote, as guaranteed in our Constitution.
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