I dont object to having an id card, though personally I have never carried or needed ID. The objection stems from the poor reasoning behind it, voter fraud, its just a lie. Unless the cards are free, mandatory or dirt cheap it will stop some people voting.
So for me its a colossal waste of time and money.
I went to a polling station in Méricourt-sous-Lens in France with one of my cousin’s sons some years ago.
After he voted I asked him if he’d had to show his Carte d’Identité in order to vote, he said no, just his polling card, with his name and address on, so I asked how he’d got the polling card.
He said that French citizens have to produce their I.D. to get on the electoral roll, and then the polling card is sent to their address, this seemed vaguely lax to me, so I asked his father what were the purposes of his I.D. card.
He initially said that it was proof that you were who you said you were, but then enlarged that to say that they’re used by people wishing to open a bank account, buy insurance etc., or if you made a purchase using a cheque, the I.D. card proved that you were the person named on the cheque.
I said that it seemed strange that you didn’t have to show it to vote, he just shrugged, and said, “Don’t ask me, ask the government.”
I asked my kid who lives in Germany whether he had to keep showing his I.D. to cops every other day, he said that the only time a cop had asked to see it, was when he’d crossed the road at a junction where the lights were green, they take a dim view of jaywalking in Germany.
He’d produced his driving licence, but the cop wanted to check it against his I.D., which was weird, as it carries an identical photo.
The cop then said that his name would go on a computer, and if he was caught jaywalking again he could possibly be given penalty points on his driving licence!
When I scoffed at that, he said that he reckoned that the cop was winding him up, because the cop had noticed that he had an English Christian name, and an obvious French surname.
