Rich Lowry probes for Politico readers the over-the-top reaction to voter identification laws.

For the left, voter ID is tantamount to a poll tax. It is meant to suppress minority voters and is a last-gasp, unconstitutional scheme by the Republican Party to save itself by decisively shaping the electorate to its advantage.

If all of this is true, the nation is awash in neo-segregationist election rules. According to a recent Government Accountability Office report on voter ID laws, 33 states now have them, although the rules vary.

A valid ID is a necessity of modern life and requiring one to vote hardly seems an undue imposition. Especially if you are willing to give one out gratis. Of the 17 states that have strict requirements for a photo or government-issued ID, the GAO notes, 16 provide a free ID to eligible voters.

The critics rejects this as yet another poll tax because people may not have the relevant underlying documents to get the free ID and there is a cost to obtaining them.

Well, yes. In Indiana, for instance, it costs $10 to obtain a birth certificate. In Arkansas, it costs $12. In North Dakota, $7.

The hard numbers suggest that the number of voters getting locked out by voter ID laws is diminishingly small. The GAO report focuses on the voter ID states of Kansas and Tennessee. In these states, voters whose eligibility to vote is in doubt may vote provisionally. Then, they have a period after the election to prove that they were indeed eligible and have their votes counted.

How many voters are showing up to vote, only to realize that they have been denied their rights by the ID requirement?

According to the GAO, in Kansas in 2012, 1,115,281 ballots were cast. There were 38,865 provisional ballots, and of these, 838 were cast for voter ID reasons.

In Tennessee, 2,480,182 ballots were cast. There were 7,089 provisional ballots and of these, 673 were cast for voter ID reasons.

In both states, about 30 percent of these voter ID-related provisional ballots were ultimately accepted. That means in Kansas and Tennessee, altogether about 1,000 ballots weren’t counted (and perhaps many of them for good reason), out of roughly 3.5 million cast.