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Via TPM:

Attorney General Eric Holder deviated from his prepared remarks during a speech before the NAACP on Tuesday and called voter ID laws “poll taxes.”

Again, the GOP plan is working: New voter registration laws could hurt President Obama. And as I have said over and over again, in many, many posts, the people suffering the worst consequences of the Voter I.D. laws are most often low income voters, the elderly, the ill who can’t leave home, young voters, minorities, and of course, anyone without transportation (or to put it another way, lean Democratic). And to those who say, “Well, there are always absentee ballots,” some states are now requiring Voter I.D. to qualify for those, too.

Access (transportation) to Voter I.D. centers is one reason so many people are unable to get a new picture I.D. Another is that it costs money, including paying for a copy of a birth certificate or other documents one might need to acquire a new I.D. Hence, the Holder reference to a poll tax.

Remember: Voter fraud is rarer than getting struck by lightning. If Republicans are so concerned about it, despite evidence to the contrary, then take steps to provide identification at no expense, physical or monetary.