Everyone in the country is required to have a Social Security card.
Every state law I've heard of demanding a picture ID seems to accept a social security card as proof of who you are to get that picture ID if you lack any form of photo ID.
So that seems to me to indicate what the obvious easy solution to the voter registration suppression tactics being used right now.
President Obama's administration should implement a program to issue new social security cards to all citizens with each person's photo to replace the ones we currently have that only has our SS # on it.
Yes I know this is not start today done tomorrow solution.
It WOULD HAVE definitely stifled the widespread voter suppression tactics we are seeing this election though had such a program started as soon as SCOTUS overturned the voting rights acts.
Issuing social security cards with photos would make a lot of the hardship out of these voter suppression tactics we are seeing that are mostly rooted in not having a photo ID to prove who you are to register to vote.
With a photo SS card, everyone in this country would have all the identification they needed to register to vote when they decided to do so.
Long gone are the days when a national infrastructure to make this happen wasn't there.
I couldn't find the reason why we don't already do this, but as I recall it was to avoid the controversy developing due to widespread objections by those with conspiracy issues about being required to carry a NATIONAL Identification Card.
Some had ideological reasons like libertarians who felt it infringed on their rights to religious types who felt it was akin to being forced to take the # of the Antichrist.
Regardless of what they were, those who objected were large enough in number and passionate enough to prevent the inclusion of a photo Social Security card when the program started.
It's been that way so long that now some people even get suspicious simply because it is a change from how it has been done.
Times have changed however and not in favor of those who oppose a photo Social Security card I think.
The biggest change is the feeling about people coming here from South of the Border.
Issuing photo social security cards would make it much harder for employers to claim they had no way of knowing the social security # they were given was fraudulent.
That factor alone should counter a bunch of the conspiracy types who oppose national ID cards for whatever nonsense reason.
The neat thing about issuing SS cards with photos is it could avoid the National ID issue by simply NOT mentioning it as a reason. Putting a photo on a social security card doesn't make it a national ID, because it doesn't have any personal info beyond your SS #.
It's sole purpose could remain the same, albeit with a photo attached.
The REAL effect however would still likely happen I think, because we already accept SS cards as valid ID, one with a photo would likely very rapidly become accepted as a National ID and become the one thing you need to register to vote.
Republithug tactics that would try and require a photo Social Security card to get a Voter photo ID card suddenly becomes utter nonsense.
Only the fact that our current social security cards don't have photos lets them get away with not accepting the social security card as ID enough.
All the other objections I've read are just as thin. The cost objection is absurd considering that we already have everything in place to do this. It's just never been tied together in a neat little package to make it happen.
I have a feeling though the biggest objection is as I said, it's never been done that way and doing it that way has been badmouthed so long that people instinctively react negatively to the notion without thinking even a lot of otherwise sane and logical lefties.
Of course there might be some solid, hard reasons. If you have some I'd love to discuss them. :)