For those on the political left, voter ID laws are a somewhat contentious subject. The vocal liberals insist they are an attempt to suppress the minority vote. For some reason it goes unnoticed that this implies minorities are either unable to figure out how to obtain a photo identification, or they lack the motivation (too lazy). Either way, those who believe election officials should simply take someone’s word for it who they are, are firmly out of touch with the rest of the nation regardless of political ideology or race.
A Marist/McClatchy poll recently asked Americans if they think it’s a good thing or a bad thing if election laws were changed to require photo identification in order to vote.
Requiring a photo identification in order to vote has consistently been supported by an overwhelmingly wide margin regardless of party or race. One has to wonder why the political left expends so much energy claiming this is A) racist, and B) an attempt to suppress votes?
Anyone else notice that more non-whites think requiring a photo ID to vote is a good thing, and fewer non-whites think it’s a bad thing? There goes that narrative.
Sifting Reality 
I think that requiring state identification does suppress some voters and is therefore good. Some voters are incompetent and should not be voting. A test was developed to determine whether someone was competent to vote, Competence Assessment Tool for Voting, see http://psychiatryonline.org/data/Journals/PSS/3878/pss_60_05_624_02.pdf
Passing this test should be required for voting and marked on IDs.
This is one thing the ex-pats I know can agree on with the “right.” They normally have a knee-jerk, visceral hatred of anything Republican but, here in Canada, you can’t vote without ID, and they can’t figure out what the objection is. They don’t accept the “suppressing minorities” reasoning.
I’m still trying to figure out in what way requiring ID to vote suppresses voters or disenfranchises them. I saw a bumper sticker yesterday (on a car with an Obama sticker also) which simply stated, “Voter ID Suppresses Voters.”
As has been pointed out many times, ID is required for just about everything. There is no reason for any legal voter to NOT have ID. So the only voters it would suppress are those who vote illegally.
Liberals just ape whatever they are told, and do not bother to engage their brain.