It’s normal to require an ID card in EU countries to vote, but e.g. in the UK they never asked for it, as long as my name was on the list (there are no national ID cards there).
I was baffled when I heard that in the US, you can’t just go somewhere and vote. Like, it really is that simple here.
But you have to register beforehand, right? And use some form of ID or a Name+address combo that makes it impossible to impersonate you to hijack your vote.
The United States is one of the few democracies in the world where the government does not take any responsibility in registering its citizens. This one-of-a-kind, self-initiated voter registration process acts as a major barrier to voter turnout and leads to often- inaccurate voter rolls. In contrast, the international norm is a process of government-mandated automatic voter registration of every citizen who reaches voting age. This report explores how other major well-established democracies (Canada, Australia, Sweden, Italy, New Zealand and others) concretely manage to build comprehensive, inclusive, accurate voting rolls that leave no voters behind while ensuring a high level of privacy.
https://archive.fairvote.org/rtv/Universal Voter Registration-4-21-09.pdf
In the UK, we are required to show our legal ID to vote (The tories brought it in a few years ago). Our driving licences are national ID cards, practically.
and ID cards were revoked again https://www.gov.uk/identitycards
PS: ok, you’re right, “some” ID is required since 2023 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65599380 which is a pickle if you don’t drive or have a passport.
