[KennyBlanken]

But then we need to be careful to make sure the requirements for getting an ID aren't too onerous.

Trying to get a "RealID" for a family member was a nightmare because apparently her ORIGINAL birth certificate from 70 years ago was not acceptable to the asshole behind the desk at the DMV. So we had to get a certified copy from the county this person was born in that bore some seal or stamp the clerk wanted.

Guess who had lost decades worth of birth records, thus requiring us to pay for a special search process that took weeks?

An expensive, time-consuming nightmare start to finish.

There are people out there who have no idea where they were born because their parents didn't tell them, people whose parents held their birth certificates hostage for whatever reason, etc. Lots of people who rent and share an apartment might not have a single utility bill in their name. "Just give us a bank bill" someone says. Welllll in getting all frothy about terrorism we now demand banks verify the identity of their customers using...a government issued ID. The whole thing gets cyclical very quickly.

[lsiebert]

As bad as that is, some folks never got a birth certificate

https://sclegal.org/living-without-a-birth-certificate/