>Americans manifestly do not have a right to possess a driver's license, it's a privilege. The process for obtaining one requires expenditure of time, energy, and money.
Just get a state ID or passport then.
>Americans manifestly do not have a right to possess a driver's license, it's a privilege. The process for obtaining one requires expenditure of time, energy, and money.
Just get a state ID or passport then.
28 USD for a non-driver ID in my state of residence (1) (exceptions: free if you are homeless or are a blind veteran)
65 USD for a passport card (2) (the cheapest passport option).
Both require attending in-person appointments.
For contrast:
Voting is compulsory in Australia. Citizens may register to vote entirely online, and may prove their identity using a Medicare card or citizenship certificate (or driver's license or passport, ofc) (3). (Aside: this page of FAQs explicitly calls out that these two means of proving ID have been added as a response to increasing feedback from young people, disabled people, and people living in remote areas about having less access to driver's license or passport.)
Obtaining an Australian Medicare card is free, and citizens may prove their identity using a birth certificate (no need for it to be certified) and submitting their application + supporting documents by email (or by mail, but that costs postage) (4).
Free, and no in-person appointment.
1. https://portal.ct.gov/dmv/licenses-permits-ids/get-non-drive...
2. https://travel.state.gov/en/passports/apply/adults.html#acco...
3. https://www.aec.gov.au/faqs/enrolment.htm
4. https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/enrolling-medicare-if-y...
Australia is somewhat unusual here among developed democracies, as a simple web search will show. Elsewhere obtaining an ID typically requires at least some payment and time spent visiting an office.
Were other developed democracies incapable to follow Australia?
I think that's immaterial to the present thread. Such countries exist and are regarded as developed democracies by the usual respected rankings, so to argue that "well, they aren't really democracies then" would not be a very productive enterprise.
Are these REAL ID? Are they free? How long does one has to drive to find an office who can deliver those? How much paperwork is needed? How many times does one has to get back in person to that ID office?
Stop. We can all see you argue in bad faith. You are at best incurious and naive, and at worst...
Do you pay taxes? Have you ever applied for a loan/bank account/rent/mortgage/etc? Have you ever enrolled a child in school? Have you ever applied for a job? Have you ever had to fill out paperwork after the loss of a loved one? etc etc etc etc
These are all tasks that a functional adult in the world needs to do regardless of background / race / creed / etc.
It's not bad faith to say hey as a functional adult you should go get a fucking ID.
What is the % of people that honestly do not have one? Pass a law and give people 4 years to go get one.
Like why must you insist on treating people like hopeless children?
I think it is bad faith to implicitly assume a driver's license is required when there are easier options.
I have a state ID, a REAL ID. It was not particularly difficult to get. I'm a bit skeptical of the claim that there are major cross-national differences in difficulty here.
>It was not particularly difficult to get.
Thank you for reminding us that you aren't working three jobs in the same day to make ends meet, have disposable income and free time to collect the documents and get to the office twice,and live in a district where said office isn't half a day of driving (with the current gas prices) away.
And of course, you are fine with people with less affodances than you not being able to vote. Such moral character on top of your comfortable life.
You make it sound like this would pass into law and within 48 hours everyone would need to go get an ID.
You'd pass this into law and then have it take effect 2-4 years out, and if you can't go and secure yourself an ID after 2-4 years of notice you aren't a functional adult.
You aren't a functional country.
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/05/1140778386/real-id-enforcemen...
https://www.votebeat.org/2025/06/09/proof-of-citizenship-doc...
It is also funny you have at people not being real adults when the vice president of the United States - himself very worried about election fraud - is saying people in Alaska may be confused between two Sullivans on the ballot because "people are busy. People have lives. People have jobs". Apparently he thinks a large proportion of Alaskans aren't functioning adults. Funny, that.
>Thank you for reminding us that you aren't working three jobs in the same day to make ends meet, have disposable income and free time to collect the documents and get to the office twice,and live in a district where said office isn't half a day of driving (with the current gas prices) away.
Sure, I mean, going to the grocery store is also very oppressive. You need money, time, transport, etc.
>And of course, you are fine with people with less affodances than you not being able to vote. Such moral character on top of your comfortable life.
I have no issue if people want to implement measures to make it easier to get ID. But given the state of US democracy, election security currently seems important enough to me that voter ID laws seem reasonable. That's how policy works--there are tradeoffs. Want me to pearl-clutch about your moral character in allowing the country to descend into fascism through a contested election?
>I have no issue if people want to implement measures to make it easier to get ID.
That's the big "if". That's why the current representatives who pretend to want to secure the elections are only pretending. That's why you are not answering in good faith, because you are ignoring/handwaving that crucial part.
>Sure, I mean, going to the grocery store is also very oppressive. You need money, time, transport, etc.
Going to the grocery store is not a constitutional right. We already went through this vacuous argument when Republicans pretended that "you have to show ID to have unlimited pasta at the Olive Garden" as an excuse for their sudden request to force states to impose ID requirements just before the midterms. Again: bad faith argument.
I live in a country where there is ID requirements to vote. It is also a place where we use paper ballots, and polling places have never queues longer than five minutes, and voting only happens on Sundays. There is no mail voting. There is no gerrymandering. This is all possible because the whole system is made to make voting convenient and always has been. This can't be said of the USA which has an old and present history of massive voter suppression and electoral manipulation. The current push from Republicans to "secure" the elections is a complete bad faith attempt because they are completely open, at all levels, this is only to cancel and contest Democrat votes. That's what you describe as "election security currently seems important enough to me that voter ID laws seem reasonable". You completely ignore that, as well as the lies behind the argument:
"From 16,000 to 185 to Zero: Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Fizzle"
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/us/politics/nevada-voters...
https://archive.is/20260924155025/https://www.nytimes.com/20...
16000 lies.
ID cards in other developed and democratic countries typically require payment of application fees (sometimes modest fees, sometimes substantial fees) and visits to offices, too.
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