Getting a Photo ID: More of a Burden than You May Think

Who am I to preach about privilege? I may not be a white, heterosexual man from a non-low-income background, but in terms of the various advantages that I have in American society, I am by all means privileged. So, I am not the best person to be writing about this, but I really can't stand when people have the advantages that I do or more make comments that are so utterly unaware of the realities of real people with real lives. In all fairness, I know that a person with a particular background cannot be expected to know about the realities of others without any contact, communication, or education, but I think it's when people spew out authoritative-sounding opinions about people from different backgrounds without having met any of these people or asked about them or read about them from any source without a political agenda that really gets on my nerve. I try to be careful to indicate that I am not the best qualified person to express certain opinions or that what I am saying is limited to my experience and what I have seen/read about other people's experiences...because that is the only accurate way to qualify where my opinion is coming from.

With that rant of an introductory paragraph out there, I want to get to the topic of this post: burdening the exercise of certain fundamental rights. For now, I'd like to stick to voting rights because it is, after all, election season. I have certain feelings about voter ID laws, but I'm going to put those aside for now, and talk about my experience of obtaining driver's license in a new state.

A few months ago, I moved across state lines, so I needed to get my driver's license converted to a new one. I don't own a car, so I had to take public transportation. I live in a metropolitan area, so access by public transportation is not that bad. But even then, it probably took me at least two and a half hours round-trip from my apartment, and that was not including the time I spent waiting in line. I probably could have afforded a trip by a cab or ride-share, which would have cut down my travel time significantly, but I found that an unnecessary expense. At the time, I was studying for the bar and had no other obligations.

Let's stop right here, and think about what this would mean for someone else. Let's say the person trying to get the driver's license was not me and was living hand-to-mouth. First, this person would not likely have the option of even considering anything other than public transportation. On top of that, not everyone lives in a place with reliable public transportation or any public transportation for that matter. Then, she would have to worry about whether she could afford to take time off of work (I'm just going to use "she" so I don't have to do the unwieldy "he/she" pronoun for the entire post). Does she have paid leave? Will she be able to take any leave without the risk of getting fired or losing benefits? Can she afford to take off the day or half day she would need to get to the DMV, get in line, and go through the process? I didn't have to worry about any of the concerns I've listed in this paragraph, and honestly, there is no one in my social circle who would.

There's more. I think it cost something like $45 to get my out-of-state license converted into my current state's license. $45 may not seem like a big deal to pay for a government ID, and I'm not saying that the fee is unreasonable (it's not, really). But it's not $2 either. In other words, it's not an extra cost I would imagine someone living hand-to-mouth would want to incur.

In addition, let's not forget that to get a driver's license, you need certain documents. In my state, I needed to present a proof of name/age, proof of social security, and two proofs of residence. The same proofs are required for an identification card as well. For proof of name and age, you can use documents like a U.S. birth certificate or U.S. passport. Simple enough, right? Well, to get a U.S. passport, you probably paid a fee and presented a variety of documents and went through some kind of process that took some amount of time. How about a birth certificate then? The birth certificate would have to be an original copy or a certified copy. Two issues here: (1) a disproportionate number of elderly people don't have birth certificates; and (2) getting a certified copy is an extra expense (which may not seem like a lot, but again, it's not $2). For some people, getting these documents could present an extra hurdle in obtaining a driver's license or state ID.

Then, there's the proof of residence. You have to present two documents with your name and in-state address on them. OK, getting a lease agreement, a utility or cable bill, and/or credit card bill won't seem like a big deal for most people, but what if you are in an unstable housing situation? To people like me, "unstable housing situation" sounds like a young person between jobs or newly out of college/grad school couch-surfing with friends in a big city or living in short-term shared housing. From my experience, these people usually keep their permanent addresses at their parents' homes until they find stable housing. But there are people who do not have permanent addresses, even if they are not living on the street. People in this position may have great difficulty obtaining documents they need to obtain a driver's license or a state ID card.

What I wanted to say from all this was that it costs money and time to obtain a photo ID. For people with fewer resources, it may require more time and cost more money--not only proportionately but also as an absolute matter because the time they spend obtaining an ID may result in lost income. If voting in national elections were a privilege, this may not be a big deal. But the right to vote in a federal election is a fundamental right that is protected by the Constitution in several different ways. Even if the majority of the Supreme Court thinks it's acceptable to allow states to require people to pay for photo IDs, and even if it isn't a burden for you or me or justices of the Supreme Court, the fact is that it does constitute a burden for many people who are legally entitled to vote.

So, if you are going to support voter ID laws, can you please just acknowledge that you think it is better to err on the side of ensuring that no one who is not supposed to vote casts a vote than to err on the side of ensuring that everyone who is entitled to vote gets to exercise their fundamental rights? I can explain why I think that is not the right value judgment, but that's just my opinion, and I know and accept that there are those who will disagree with me. In a democracy, there's nothing wrong with disagreement. But if you hadn't thought about how challenging it may be for some people to obtain a photo ID, please at least think about it and whether someone with less resources deserves any less to vote than someone who doesn't have to think twice about getting a photo ID.