@mattblaze Throw into the brew the situation a few years ago when states tried to require that presidential candidates publish tax returns and were shot down by courts saying that states can not modify the requirements to hold office.

Although that is not directly germane to the voter ID situation, it does reflect a policy that when it comes to election stuff, the Constitution occupies almost the entire space leaving little room for additional Federal or state regulation.

With regard to voter ID - that is an issue that is hard to oppose because it is not irrational. I believe the D's would be better off not opposing voter ID but, instead, using those resources to make sure that every likely D voter has a proper voter ID.

@SteveBellovin @mattblaze I am far from having expertise in the art of issuing IDs. So I do not understand when you say "Providing IDs to every voter is a really hard problem."

??

(I do remember back when Dave Kaufman and I were trying to figure out operating system access control matrices that we always seemed to back into the question of "how do we know who the actor is?" [Especially when a person or thing was acting as an agent with delegated authorities from another.])

I also keep bumping into the old national ID card issue - and the fears that a person could be "vanished" by a government agency. But then again, we seem to be moving pretty close to a national ID card with things like SecureID driver's licenses.

@oclsc @SteveBellovin @mattblaze I am not making that assumption. My comment about SecureID is intended to reflect that national ID cards are sneaking up on us.

BTW, as far as I know, many (perhaps most?) will issue ID cards to those who can't get (or do not want) a driver's license. I'm not sure whether there is a SecureID version of those.

@karlauerbach @SteveBellovin @mattblaze In my salad days, when I lived in the States and the President was a B-list actor with dementia, it was a real nuisance not to have a photo ID, eg when paying by cheque (remember that?). I had a non-driver ID from California DMV for a while, but that seemed stupid. Then I attended a conference in Toronto so I got a passport, and thereafter carried that.

But in recent decades I can hardly remember being asked for ID except when crossing borders or checking into US hotels. (The latter seems new since the Reagan years--maybe it started after 9/11?)

One exception is when voting in Canada but the requirements are quite loose--provincial health card and a utility bill will do. Another recent one: when I signed my will, lawyer wanted to see ID for obvious reasons. I still had my decades-old, rather ratty Canadian citizenship card in my wallet, and that was enough. If I'd known she was going to ask I'd have brought my passport.

But the need now is annual or less, not daily.