Voter ID laws actually have a long history of being used for disenfranchisement of certain classes in the US (most notably former slaves and their descendants,

Voter ID laws actually have a long history of being used for disenfranchisement of certain classes in the US (most notably former slaves and their descendants, but also women), so it's understandable there is scar tissue there. It gives the incumbent state another lever of power in our very close first-past-the-post winner-take-all elections. Americans don't need imagination to see how it could be abused, just a good history book.