You have a right to vote, and we have the right to know who the hell you are.
Yeah, and that reasoning makes so much sense when applied to other rights - you have a right to own a gun, and we have a right to know its secure from people who don't have that right!
Fistful, are you arguing that this isn't functionally a permit, or that permits for the exercise of rights are perfectly ok? Because you don't seem to be disputing that ID laws mean that a government issued, discretionary document is a precondition of exercising the right under those rules.
As far as I'm concerned, ID laws are only acceptable if the government is forced to give you an ID unless it can prove that you're not who you say you are, and if the government cannot withhold it as punishment or security for anything. That would make it less like the permit and instrument of government control that it is.
As it currently stands, refusing to pay tickets, DUIs, and all manner of other offences can be punished by deprivation of an ID.