Is it OK to force folks to go to the Post Office to verify their government issued ID, in order to say receive benefits or pay a tax or fee? It is exclusionary to verify ID when voting, so what is the difference here?
It's exclusionary when voting (in the US) because (1) the states passing stricter voter ID laws are often at the same time are passing laws making it harder for people to get satisfactory ID, and often the things that are making it harder (closing offices that can issue ID, reducing hours of the offices that remain open) hit much harder in poorer and minority areas (which also happen to be the areas least likely to vote for the party that enacts these laws...), (2) voter fraud is incredibly rare in the US so they aren't actually solving any real problem, (3) and the voter fraud that does occur almost always is via absentee ballots and so is not addressed by the voter ID laws.
There are a ton of references in this comment [1] if you want more information on this.
If they would first implement a good ID system that makes it so every eligible voter can get a suitable ID easily and for free (like I believe much of the rest of the word does) then very few would object to voter ID.
A lot of people are in the post office on a regular basis for reasons other than this service. There's an established process for applying for passports like this. What's wrong with expanding identity verification, which is something that we've learned again and again over the past 30 years cannot be done securely online?
It's not a forced method, its an option. In my experience setting up my own Login.gov account, and helping family members with theirs, the online methods have frequent and frustrating technical difficulties. This option may be preferable than spending an hour or two trying to get the Login.gov mobile website to actually use your device's camera.
I haven't actually used the system in question; I'm just speculating based on my frustration with the increasing number of banking, trading, and even taxi booking apps that will refuse to work on modified phones.
