>...bigsnip...
>>>There's no doubt in my mind that the new law was put in place specifically to impede voting by poor people, old people, and minorities.
>>
>>...and illegals and dead people. I also would'nt overlook the photo "registration" of the citizenry angle. In this day and age of increasingly advanced photo recognition software it strikes me as the upping the ante from fingerprinting.
>
>writing from a country where you are obliged to carry a ID with photograph,
>which twice recently has been enhanced to be prcessed automatically and needs special photographs,
>Jake's upping the ante strikes familiar chords. And over here ID's get more expensive each time new features are added:
>but as it will cost you more to be found without valid ID over the long run, these costs have to be paid by everybody.
>
>Dead men voting probably is not that big an issue here and should not be in any vote.
>Voting via mail will probably be tainted a bit, as some votes might not express the wish of the voter,
>but the one able to hold the pen...
>
>But in the long run I fear more for from processable individuals
>than from spurious dead man voting as in the US.
>

Interesting article from yesterday's Chicago Tribune (originally published in their L.A. Times subsidiary) ---

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-penn-voter-id-20120718,0,1039470.story

Both parties are viewing voter ID as a potentially election deciding issue in the states where it is being considered. Here are opposing quotes from Pennsylvania, considered a crucial "battleground state":

"If the election were held today, we would have more than 100,000 of our voters who could not vote," said Stephanie Singer, chairwoman of Philadelphia's elections commission. "It's a cynical attempt by the Republican leadership to steal the election. And absolutely it could sway the outcome."

That view of the law's importance is not unique to Democrats. Last month, state House Republican leader Mike Turzai, who represents the north suburbs of Pittsburgh, ticked off this year's accomplishments before a meeting of state Republicans. "Voter ID, which is going to allow Gov. Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania: Done," he said.

Distrust statements along the lines of "this is no big deal, just a perfectly reasonable thing to require." This is an intensely political issue. Notice that everyone who is for it is Republican.