[agzg]

Originally Posted by AOE-7

I have never ever heard of a birth certificate with a married name on it. It's a birth certificate - your information as of the time you were born. Your marriage license accompanies that.

I've used my birth certificate, with my marriage license (as Kevin stated, 2 things that responsible adults have and don't lose, and register at courthouses or whatever in case your personal one should ever be dstroyed in a fire or whatever) to obtain a drivers license with my married name on it, and then I was able to use that to obtain a passport.

There are so many different forms of id available, that I just dont see how not bothering to get one is really an excuse. Doesn't have to be a drivers license. Just an ID. Something maybe the public libraries should be able to issue, or something similar...

From the study the DeltaBetaBaby linked:

Documentation proving citizenship often does not reflect the citizen's current name. Many of those who possess ready documentation of their citizenship do not have documentation that reflects their current name. For example, survey results show that only 48% of voting-age women with ready access to their U.S. birth certificates have a birth certificate with current legal name, and only 66% of voting age women with ready access to any proof of citizenship have a document with current legal name. Using 2000 census citizen voting-age population data, this means that as many as 32 million voting-age women may have available only proof of citizenship documents that do not reflect their current name.

This means that, say, you need to get an ID card, because you don't have a driver's license, but you lost your birth certificate and marriage license in a fire or flood (it's more than likely you'd lose both together). So then you have to go get a birth certificate, a copy of your marriage license, etc. etc. etc, THEN go get a state ID - this is getting nutty.

And it's not like it's that unlikely - lots of people lost everything in the floods that happened in the midwest this year. And in the tornadoes in Oklahoma. And in Hurricane Sandy. And the wildfires in Colorado.

For folks that are already disadvantaged (don't have a vehicle, the DMV isn't located in a place that's readily accessible by public transportation, the elderly are in homes where they don't do this type of transport but do transport to vote, the public transportation system in a city is unreliable) - these all add up to greater barriers to voting than you or I have. And let's remember that driving is a privilege while voting is a right.