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Comment by Apocryphon | Hacker News Reader

Why not merge them? Voter IDs can be driver’s licenses, passports, etc. So much bureaucracy. For the sake of efficiency, simply have sign ups for a voter ID card (similar to state IDs) at voting centers. Two birds, one stone. Easy.

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I'm with you, it's sadly the nature of the beast. Think about the federal government alone: DoD military ID, veteran's ID, passport, social security card, etc. are all separate organizations with different scopes. It's madness.

So what’s one more, for voting? Or better yet, allow a way to quickly issue people state ID cards at DMV voting centers and other similar facilities. That way you get an ID for voting, and for other state identification purposes. Easy-peasy.

Texas does just that! When you apply for a driver's license or other state ID, you can elect to register to vote at the same time. Two birds, one stone.

Yeah and what would be even better is when you go to vote you can get an ID.

Would be nice, but most states do not allow same day registration (New York does not as an example), or same day registration is extremely limited (in California you need your ID to vote and register on the same day).

The aforementioned problem persists, different organizations with different scopes.

Stronger voter ID laws are nice too, until the political will was expended into making it happen. By the same token, smarter ID laws can also be enacted if appropriate effort is undertaken.

Stronger voter ID laws are not nice to haves, they are the law in many states like Texas. Just like anything else surrounding government and laws, you must plan accordingly, appropriate effort is required by the voter.

Right, and the same can be said of providing the service of issuing a voter ID at the voting center on Election Day, once it is passed as legislation.

Since many states don't allow registration on the same day as voting, I'd say the government has planned accordingly after passing the aforementioned voter ID laws. Just found out this is a a standard federally: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41921184

Great! So then when they change it to allow for the issuing of voter IDs on election day, it can be done at the federal level in one fell swoop. And who knows, maybe this voter ID can be a national one so no need to deal with state bureaucracies.

I wouldn't hold my breath.

And that’s fine. As Bismarck said, politics is the art of the possible, and what becomes possible ebbs and flows with the shifting of the Overton window. Stronger voter ID laws one decade, smarter voter ID laws the next.

Texas is hardly unique in this, since every state except those which continuously since 1994 have either not required registration or offered election day registration is required to do this under the federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (the “motor voter” law.)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Voter_Registration_...

Figured it was something federal, I've lived in multiple states and they've all been the same/similar.

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