Like, when I got my license I showed my birth certificate and a bank statement. Obviously not everyone has a birth certificate, but what is it that you give them to get a drivers license that’s not realID?

Not trying to be a dick genuinely curious about the procedure

[–] Aceivan@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I think the issue is mostly upgrading an existing license, getting a new license tends to be less complex since there's been less time to lose documents, change names, change addresses ,etc.

you need (in my state) to have a fair amount of documentation, not bad for most people, but enough for them to put it off because its not actually been enforced in any meaningful way until now.

Specifically:

you need a home address (unclear if there's any way to get one as a homeless person even in lib states and red states seem to be leaning towards stating it's full-on illegal)
you need extra documentation of all past name changes (if you've been married, are trans, or just have changed names for any reason, this could be a barrier)
in addition to just having a home address you need documentation of it that someone who's not on a lease or otherwise in a tenuous housing situation won't have, or even just someone that lives with a partner but none of the bills are in their name may struggle.
all your documents have to match the same home address (its pretty common to not have all that up to date)
and the rules aren't always super clear on what counts as documentation of what and what doesn't

I don't have one because I went in to get one and they required documentation of my address I didn't have on me (ironically, an existing DL counts as one form of documentation and that itself requires only one document to verify so if I changed my address and then went back the next day to change it again to a realID it would have counted despite me gaining no new documents) so now I'm in the 60% of people without it in my state

Its totally possible to have an existing ID and just keep renewing it even though you wouldn't have the docs to get a new one or a realID. In my state if you don't update your address or name all you need is to know your social security number and have an existing ID

And ofc not everyone has an existing state ID either, its somewhat common not to among certain disadvantaged communities