And there wouldn't be any issue of "restricting certain people from voting" because the federal government would have to provide everyone with one anyway. It could also lead to safer and more verifiable voting on voting machines (even though I still believe nothing beats pen and paper at this).
* Do replacements cost money?
* Do I have to go somewhere in person to get the card? Is it within walking distance?
* What are the days and the hours that this place is open?
* ... (there are so many more questions but most importantly)
* How do we pay for it?
If it were done benevolently and with the best of intentions, it could work. But it isn't.
I'm a 30-something middle-class white male who works in tech in a large Canadian city with excellent public transit. I don't have a driver's license, and I'm constantly running into idiotic barriers because I don't have one. People and processes seem to assume that I do and when confronted with the contrary, a lot of people don't really know what to do.
[1] http://www.icbc.com/driver-licensing/getting-licensed/Pages/...
Republicans don't want a national ID and Democrats don't want to anger their base.
I am not a huge fan of the idea (from the Republican side although I'm not a Republican) but at this point I don't even care because companies cannot be trusted to handle this.