Harder to drive, harder to vote?

[Brainstormy]

My husband stopped at the GEORGIA DMV to routinely renew his driver's license before his May birthday. He was surprised, and so was I, to learn that to accomplish this previously routine transaction he was required to have THREE forms of ID: a birth certificate, a passport, and/or Social Security identification, and proof of address. His old driver's license, with our still current address, was inadequate as a form of identification or as proof of address. (And while no one seems to care, my own Social Security card clearly states that it's not a form of ID.) He was told that they was now strictly enforcing the " new" identification requirements, but no one in my family had heard anything about this.

My internet research reveals that the "new" law went into effect in 2013, but it's been a well kept secret. Seems to me that the intent here is purely and simply voter repression. Obviously anything and everything that makes it more difficult to get a driver's license will make it more difficult to vote. Or am I, blue in a red state, just getting completely paranoid?

[CottonBear]

1. Yes. It is harder to drive & vote in GA

On purpose.

The GA & national GOP have done this to suppress voting.

[LoisB]

2. Thank goodness I live in California. Good Lord!! How stupid when a current driver's

license is not sufficient identification.

[SmittynMo]

3. This is a direct result of the idiot GOP in action

How friggin stupid is this? Anything to make it harder, hoping more will just say screw it. It isn't worth it.

[jberryhill]

4. No, it's a consequence of the Real ID act of 2005

[jberryhill]

5. The Real ID act was passed in 2005

Some of the states which don't implement it will mark "not for federal purposes" on the license.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/REAL_ID_Act

[Rhiannon12866]

6. I did not know this, so thank you!

Though what I read on your link pretty much speaks for itself...

Introduced in the House of Representatives as H.R. 418 by Jim Sensenbrenner on January 26, 2005
Signed into law by President George W. Bush on May 11, 2005

[jberryhill]

7. It was a blunt approach to a problem

In a nutshell, when they started requiring ID to pass through airport security, they were confronted by the fact that there are a zillion different things issued by states which pass for ID of one kind or another. Additionally, variations of the "paper game" could still be carried out in some states to acquire a state issued ID.

Among the consequences of the Real ID act were uniform requirements for birth certificates, which were all over the map. This is why, if you haven't gotten one in a while, you'll notice that you no longer get a certified copy of something someone filled out long ago. Instead, you get a computer print out on security paper which the clerk will stamp. It is also one of the reasons why people who haven't gotten one in a while think the president's birth certificate is suspect.

There was a lot of resistance to various provisions of the act, so only a few states fully implement it.

[Rhiannon12866]

8. Thank you for the background...

I've only used my birth certificate as ID once that I can remember and it was when I got my driver's license. Who carries a birth certificate around? But I'm always being asked to show my driver's license, and I can't see why that wouldn't be accepted most places since, unlike a birth certificate, it has a photo...

[Sunlei]

9. same in Texas. and the names have to match exactly. No ID can be expired either.

People who are well known are having trouble voting, many others don't even vote, they don't want the hassle. How many people want to go home and dig out their marriage papers or are common law married(legal) and don't even have marriage papers?

From NYT article

Texas’ Stringent Voter ID Law Makes a Dent at Polls

HOUSTON — First, Judge Sandra Watts was stopped while trying to vote because the name on her photo ID, the same one she had used for voter registration and identification for 52 years, did not exactly match her name on the official voter rolls.

A few days later, state Senator Wendy Davis, a Democrat who became a national celebrity after her filibuster over a new abortion law, had the same problem in early voting. So did her likely Republican opponent in next year’s governor’s race, Attorney General Greg Abbott.

They were all able to vote after signing affidavits attesting that they were who they claimed to be. But not Jim Wright, a former speaker of the House in Washington, whose expired driver’s license meant he could not vote until he went home and dug a certified copy of his birth certificate out of a box.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/us/politics/texas-stringent-voter-id-law-makes-a-dent-at-polls.html?_r=0