It is the "easy to get one" part that is often the kicker. There are a lot of examples out there, many of them concerning poor people, but I will use my late grandmother as an example:
In 2011 Wisconsin instituted a Voter ID law that required a valid government ID in order to vote. Being in her 90s at the time my grandmother had stopped driving (at her childrens' wise insistence) a number of years prior. That being her only government ID that was acceptable, she needed to get a renewal of it, but this time as a non-driving ID.
So she was taken to the DMV to renew it, only to be told that they could not renew it (or convert it), because it had expired too long ago. She needed to start the application from scratch, and for that she needed an original birth certificate, with a stamp. The only birth certificate that she had had no stamp (the county she was born in not having had one until much later). So that was going to require her to get a new one of those.
So my aunt called around, finally finding the proper number for the hall of records in the county where my grandmother was born. Unfortunately it is a small county, so the hall of records is only open once or twice a week for part of a day... and the only place they accurately record that is on the door of the building apparently. So just getting in contact was quite a pain (a couple weeks of occasional work).
Then we learned that she would have to present herself in person to get her birth certificate. I remind you that she is in her late 90s at this point, and had never traveled far in her life (the farthest ever was probably to my wedding on the other side of the state), so this was not going to be a minor trip for her (only an hour-and-a-half... but for her...).
This was just too much for her, so she gave up. She grouced about not being able to vote in what wound up being her last major election, but... the hurdles she faced were just too much.
She had voted in pretty much every election she could, but her last one was denied her by the Voter Id Laws.
The answer to your question is that this is entirely an attempt by one political party to make it harder for people to vote, knowing that the people with the largest hurdles are likely the ones who are going to vote against them. It is disgraceful and underhanded, especially from the party that likes to associate itself with religion.
In 2011 Wisconsin instituted a Voter ID law that required a valid government ID in order to vote. Being in her 90s at the time my grandmother had stopped driving (at her childrens' wise insistence) a number of years prior. That being her only government ID that was acceptable, she needed to get a renewal of it, but this time as a non-driving ID.
So she was taken to the DMV to renew it, only to be told that they could not renew it (or convert it), because it had expired too long ago. She needed to start the application from scratch, and for that she needed an original birth certificate, with a stamp. The only birth certificate that she had had no stamp (the county she was born in not having had one until much later). So that was going to require her to get a new one of those.
So my aunt called around, finally finding the proper number for the hall of records in the county where my grandmother was born. Unfortunately it is a small county, so the hall of records is only open once or twice a week for part of a day... and the only place they accurately record that is on the door of the building apparently. So just getting in contact was quite a pain (a couple weeks of occasional work).
Then we learned that she would have to present herself in person to get her birth certificate. I remind you that she is in her late 90s at this point, and had never traveled far in her life (the farthest ever was probably to my wedding on the other side of the state), so this was not going to be a minor trip for her (only an hour-and-a-half... but for her...).
This was just too much for her, so she gave up. She grouced about not being able to vote in what wound up being her last major election, but... the hurdles she faced were just too much.
She had voted in pretty much every election she could, but her last one was denied her by the Voter Id Laws.
The answer to your question is that this is entirely an attempt by one political party to make it harder for people to vote, knowing that the people with the largest hurdles are likely the ones who are going to vote against them. It is disgraceful and underhanded, especially from the party that likes to associate itself with religion.