One problem with these new voter ID laws

Several states are trying to pass new voter ID laws, which, according to the Supreme Court, do not inhibit voters from actually voting. The argument in favor of these laws is that illegal aliens try to vote, and that's wrong. But there's a problem with this argument, as the NY Times points out:

Illegal immigrants do their best to remain in the shadows, to avoid attracting government attention and risking deportation. It is hard to imagine that many would walk into a polling place, in the presence of challengers and police, and try to cast a ballot.

There's another issue: what benefit would an illegal alien derive from trying to vote? Citizens vote because it's out civic responsibility, we want our candidate to win, and we take pride in being able to vote as American citizens. But there's no direct tangible benefit. So why would who gets no benefit take the risk of being deported? That seems like a fairly cut-and-dried cost-benefit analysis to me.

But I think the Republicans may also be making a strategic mistake in this election. Most of the voters who have problems with photo ID or citizenship papers are, I'm guessing, elderly. I'm not worried about anyone under 30 not having a photo ID, unless they have an unusual circumstance - they just got married and changed their name, they lost their ID, etc.

And who benefits from an imbalance between young and elderly voters? Barack Obama. He has consistently won huge majorities of the under-30 crowd. McCain, on the other hand, would be 72 at the inauguration, and has strong appeal to older people who think, for example, that Obama does not have enough experience, among other things.

So Republicans, by pushing these voter ID/citizenship laws, may actually be doing themselves more harm than good in the 2008 election. Like I always say, irony is 9/10 of the law.