It is possible to have respectable motives for trying to enact voter ID requirements. That doesn't mean the voter ID requirements that have been enacted were well-intentioned.
The patterns in what forms of ID were deemed acceptable (eg. gun licenses but not student IDs), the limited options for obtaining the free IDs that states are required to make available (eg. office open only of the fifth Wednesday of the month), and the other restrictions often enacted simultaneously (eg. reduced early voting times and locations) all add up to an undeniable pattern of discriminatory intent, especially when the coordinating efforts of organizations like ALEC are considered. Voter ID, for all that it may be justifiable in some incarnations, has been tainted by association with bigotry for at least the next generation or two. The problems with our elections will either have to be solved through other means, or at least with a very different kind of voter ID system.
The patterns in what forms of ID were deemed acceptable (eg. gun licenses but not student IDs), the limited options for obtaining the free IDs that states are required to make available (eg. office open only of the fifth Wednesday of the month), and the other restrictions often enacted simultaneously (eg. reduced early voting times and locations) all add up to an undeniable pattern of discriminatory intent, especially when the coordinating efforts of organizations like ALEC are considered. Voter ID, for all that it may be justifiable in some incarnations, has been tainted by association with bigotry for at least the next generation or two. The problems with our elections will either have to be solved through other means, or at least with a very different kind of voter ID system.