Gumbo4x4
Note to the ladies who forgot to
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2012
Eh, the ID is $11, but you're not counting the cost of all the extra documents you have to have in order to successfully complete the application, if you don't happen to have them to hand:
So, a MO birth certificate copy is $15, and if you don't request it in person you have to have the request notarized, which is an extra $2 *if* you can find a notary public. You're also going to have to pay the fee by check or money order in that case, and if you are unbanked, a money order means a trip to Schnucks where they will charge you $5 for it (or if you have a WalMart handy, $.70.) If you need to prove the name change, too, that's another $15 for a certified copy of the record.
If you don't know your SSN and you don't have a license, getting that information requires appearing in person at the Social Security office. Being familiar with the lines there, the cost is a half-day's pay, plus perhaps bus fare and 2 hours in transit to get there and back home, so that's a minimum of $3 in cash (that's from MY neighborhood. From YOUR neighborhood it would probably be much pricier, since BiState doesn't serve much of your neck of the woods.)
If you are unemployed and live with a relative, you are unlikely to have a utility bill, bank statement or pay check with your name on it. I suppose official mail from a public assistance agency would do, but notice they don't mention that (and these days it's harder to get those. Even unemployment benefits are handled fully online.)
So, if you don't have the above documents where you can lay your hands on them (and many, many people do not), then it's at least a full day's effort and about $30 at minimum. For a single adult in poverty, $30 is probably a week's groceries, and you are lucky if you don't get docked a day's pay if you take time off to do all that. I'd say that having to forego a week's food in order to register to vote would classify as a hardship.
Even if 1/4 of 1% of a metro area the size of ours falls into this category, that's almost 7,000 people, or 13X more than the Florida margin that elected Bush 43.
Again though, how exactly does one manage to get through life as an adult, one probably depending on some sort of gov’t aid, sans all these documents?