I am really missing something here.
How does ID work in America? I would think asking for ID would be the bare minimum.
In south Africa in order to vote, you need a standard green ID book. Yes in order to get one it costs money, but its the base identification used for everything in this country. Then before the elections, you need to register that ID book at a voting station, and that determines your voting area.
If you do not have an ID document, and are not registered at that station, you don't get to vote. When voting time comes, you have to present your ID book so they can confirm that it is you who is voting. The only thing that costs any money here is the ID document, and that is something all South African citizens need to have. If you don't have one, you are basically not considered a citizen.
Don't Americans have something similar they can use, like a register of social security numbers? Where each social security number can only be used once, and is checked to make sure its still valid? I mean if you don't require proper ID verification you get elections like you do in Zimbabwe were 200 000 dead people "voted".