In Re: “The Minuscule Voter Fraud Problem,” Jack Crawford, letters, May 30.
While I mostly agree with Mr. Crawford’s premise, I believe it is also very relevant to point out the number of elections that are decided by a very small number of votes. We have had them right here in our U.S. congressional and state Assembly elections where the differences between winners and losers were very small.
I personally don’t know anyone, no matter their race, ethnicity, level of education or political party, who doesn’t have at least one legally issued form of identification. I’m a a high school dropout and I have a California driver’s license, a U.S. passport, my retired military ID card and my Veterans Administration ID card — all having my picture on them.
Voter list maintenance practices are largely governed by state law, but two pieces of federal legislation provide a regulatory floor: the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002 designed to give states and local jurisdictions a minimum standard for purging people from their voter roles. Reasons can be death, relocation out of the district, imprisonment, etc.
Two of the most difficult things for governments to address are deaths and people moving, as both require the notification by the person or their survivors that the person is no longer eligible to vote in the jurisdiction. In-person voting and showing proper ID would obviously address both of those problems.
Several states, California is among the worst, drag their feet big time when it comes to requiring voter ID, usually making the very racist claim that “minorities” don’t have access to valid identification and they also have no way of getting themselves to a polling place.
Democrats in this country are quite comfortable and active in stating that we should pass new gun laws based on what someone “might do” with their firearm, but when it comes to voting they want laws that prevent the government from trying to prevent what “might happen” if ID is required to vote.
Rick Barker
Valencia
