Requiring photo ID in order to vote.

First, let me address the issue of cost. My opponent says that for some people, documents required to get a Photo ID could cost hundreds of dollars. How? People get birth certificates when they are born. Neither myself nor anyone I know has had to purchase anything to get a Driver's License/Photo ID. I'm sure it is the same for my opponent, or anyone else reading this who got a Photo ID or Driver's License. Except for a negligible portion of the population [people who must have lost extremely important documents such as their birth certificate], the cost is ~10 bucks plus a ride to the DMV. Keep in mind, too, that people could almost certainly get government assistance if they truly could not afford it, due to the fact that voting is a constitutional right. Though admittedly, there are very few who would be overburdened by such a small price. Next, let us go over the effects, positive and negative, of requiring Photo ID for voting. Negative effects: N1. Some people who would have voted will not vote, due to it being too much trouble or costing too much for them to get a Photo ID. [This effect is very small, due to the fact that those who are too lazy would probably not have voted anyway and those who cannot afford it are very few in number [due to the low cost]] N2. People who have no ID will have to spend ~10 bucks and go to their DMV to get an ID. [Also a small effect, for the simple fact that 10 bucks isn't very much money] Positive effects: P1. A stand is taken against illegals who are abusing the system.. P2. The voting system of the USA becomes more secure. P3. More people will have Photo ID's. P1 is important especially for those who like standing on principle. People should not be able to exploit the system like illegals do - not paying taxes, and potentially reaping the benefits of voting. No representation without taxation. Do things the right way, illegals. Like the rest of us do. P2 is also very important. A system as major as the voting of the USA should not have security flaws, let alone ones so apparent. Requiring photo ID patches this security hole. It doesn't matter that the hole isn't being exploited en masse, it's still there, and we know about it. We should fix it, if only on principle. P3 has many benefits of its own. It helps law enforcement with accurate identification when arrests, background checks, etc. are needed. It helps in the identification of bodies that are severely maimed. It makes identity theft much more difficult. It can be used as an identity verification tool by companies and the like. Already, it seems that there is much more positive than negative. However, if needed we can mitigate some of the negative effects. Small tax breaks could be given to all who vote in an election - enough to cover the small cost of getting a Photo ID. Something of this sort would probably happen if people complained about not being able to vote based on not having ID. This also has the effect of encouraging democratic participation. This mitigates N2, and also part of N1. Some people will still not vote simply because they were too lazy, but very few people that lazy would have voted anyway. Thus, it seems that the negative effects are far outweighed by the positive effects.