I agree and think that some of the “it is just impossible for minorities to get IDs” stuff is, like, uncomfortably low expectations. I think this is sort of condescending and not really helping our case. If you took the average person from a minority community, I happy to believe that they are equally able to get an ID as a person from a majority community.
But in every community there is a range of willingness to deal with bureaucratic annoyances to vote. Adding more hurdles bumps some people from the voter to non-voter bucket. The reason it is a big issue in the US is that we have a well documented history of adding those hurdles selectively in order to suppress votes from particular communities. This is part of a really dark chapter in our history so people have a visceral reaction to it. I mean, since you are Canadian—I guess people would be a little skeptical if someone tried to start a conversation like “Well lots of countries have boarding schools so here’s my plan for education in some underserved communities…,” right?
But in every community there is a range of willingness to deal with bureaucratic annoyances to vote. Adding more hurdles bumps some people from the voter to non-voter bucket. The reason it is a big issue in the US is that we have a well documented history of adding those hurdles selectively in order to suppress votes from particular communities. This is part of a really dark chapter in our history so people have a visceral reaction to it. I mean, since you are Canadian—I guess people would be a little skeptical if someone tried to start a conversation like “Well lots of countries have boarding schools so here’s my plan for education in some underserved communities…,” right?