Photo IDs are probably important. Until about 40 years ago, you only saw them on Passports or at places where you needed positive identification, like military installations or nuclear power plants.

Thanks to the Polaroid Corporation and its photo ID system in the early 1970s, States began issuing photo ID drivers licenses which provides a level of certainty for those retailers who would take a check from a customer or sell liquor to someone who had proof of age.

Today, you can't get on airplane without one, and some states want to make people provide one when they vote.

The republicans who make the biggest case for photo IDs in polling places ought to reconsider their position on photo IDs. since "corporations are people" (according to Mitt Romney) shouldn't the corporations provide a photo ID when purchase TV time or making political contributions? The Department of Motor Vehicles won't take a picture of the Citibank logo and issue a drivers' license.

Also since many Republicans want grant "personhood status" to fetuses, shouldn't those "persons" have to go down to the DMV and get a state sanctioned photo ID. I don't think a sonogram of a fetus provides the same level of accuracy of  as a poorly lit photo taken by a disgruntled state employee, do you?