The issue is that the US doesn’t have any national ID system aside from passports. Each individual state runs their own ID system, and they set their own requirements for those IDs independently. So IDs in one state may be much easier to get than in a neighboring state.

The US also has a long history of using voting laws to disenfranchise minority voters. Back when black people were given the right to vote, many states enacted laws that required literacy tests or ballot taxes for anyone who didn’t own land. These were designed specifically to prevent black people (mostly former slaves who were never taught to read, who didn’t own land, and who couldn’t afford the tax) from voting. Those were eventually ruled illegal, so states simply pivoted towards requiring tests for IDs instead. Requiring documentation that slaves didn’t have (like birth certificates) and requiring a fee be paid for the ID. This effectively put a gate on the ability to vote, without explicitly requiring a test or tax to vote. Basically, if an ID requires a tax and test, and voting requires an ID, then voting implicitly requires a tax and test. But since it was a step removed from actually testing or taxing the voters, the courts didn’t find it illegal.

So with that history in mind, Americans (at least those who know the history and aren’t racist) tend to get squirmy whenever voter ID laws are brought up. Because voter ID laws are almost always backed by some sort of implied racism. For instance, many minorities need to jump through extra environmental hoops to get an ID. Cities (where many liberal voters live) tend to have inadequate facilities to actually process all of the people trying to get IDs. But rural areas (where conservatives tend to live) often have nearly no wait times because they are properly staffed and funded. If a liberal person in the city wants to get an ID, it often requires taking an entire day off of work for it, because wait times are measured in hours instead of minutes. So by making IDs harder to get for liberals, they effectively gate liberal votes.