Due to the necessity of personal automobile transportation in most US cities (poor public transit infrastructure), many Americans have state driver's licenses (

Due to the necessity of personal automobile transportation in most US cities (poor public transit infrastructure), many Americans have state driver's licenses (~87%). We do not have a national ID card. Consequently, many voter ID laws presume that all voters will have a driver's license as a form of ID (or even less likely forms, such as a passport or birth certificate). While there are non-license forms of ID that can be obtained, all of these are bureaucratic processes. Driver's license IDs are problematic for two reasons: (1) poorer and/or minority Americans are less likely to have a driver's than wealthy and/or white Americans (by ~5%) & (2) poorer and/or minority Americans are far more likely to have their driver's licenses taken (due to policing and economic inabilities to pay court fines or other charges). Voter ID laws thus (1) create additional barriers for minority or poor Americans to vote, (2) are legal (in that aren't directly suppressing minority voting), (3) do not impact wealthy white voters.