beaumontenterprise.com
OPINION
By Thomas Taschinger
Published 03:00 a.m., Sunday, January 15, 2012

If you'd like to know why voter I.D. laws are justified, consider what happened in the storied New Hampshire primary last week.

According to the Boston Herald, "A mystery man trying to vote ... using a dead man's name got caught by an eagle-eyed voting supervisor in Manchester, then disappeared before police could corral him. ...

"The man, dressed in a suit and tie, did not say why he was trying to vote as the recently deceased person and would not identify any group he was representing. 'He said, "You'll soon find out",' (according to the local voting supervisor)."

The election official recognized the name of the dead voter because he had passed away so recently. She suspects the phony voter got his name from recent obituaries.

So there you have it. If not for an alert official who just happened to notice the dead man's name, the fake vote would have been cast and counted.

The fact that the well-dressed fraudster said, "You'll soon find out (why)" is also interesting. It suggests he was part of an organized effort to cast illegal votes and later show how easy it was.

And let's be honest about this: It is.

Letting people vote without showing an official photo I.D. is almost asking for trouble. It's just not that hard to get a fake library card or someone's utility bill and use it to vote. All it takes is a little gall - or some other form of motivation, like cash.

Is it happening a lot now? Probably not.

Could it happen more often? Probably so.

This country has something like 12 million illegal immigrants. With staggering numbers like that, some extracurricular balloting could easily tip an election in a city, a county, or a state.

Don't forget that Mitt Romney won the Iowa caucuses by just eight votes over Rick Santorum.

The claims by Democrats that voter I.D. laws will shut out the poor, elderly and minorities are vastly overblown - and insulting to the poor, elderly and minorities.

The majority of these folks already have photo I.D.s - and use them to cash checks, identify themselves at government offices or board airplanes (and yes, they do fly too). If they don't have photo I.D.s, states like Texas will provide them for free. What's difficult or unfair about that?

The Enterprise had an Associated Press story on Friday about this issue. It mentioned an older woman in San Antonio who didn't have a photo I.D. ... but was simply going to get one at a DPS office.

It also mentioned patrons at a senior nutrition center: "Most of the men proudly produced valid driver's licenses."

If voter I.D. laws in Texas, South Carolina and other states aren't struck down by meddling judges, this will prove to be the biggest non-story since Y2K. The few people who don't have photo I.D.s will simply get them, and the sun will still continue to rise in the east. Years from now, students in political science classes will look back on this hoopla and wonder, "What was the fuss about?"

The pizza place I go to almost weekly asks me for a photo I.D. every time I pay by check. I am not insulted or surprised by their reasonable request. They are giving me a delicious pizza, and I am giving them a piece of paper. They simply want to know if that check is valid.

If all of this is OK for something as humble as a pizza, it ought to be OK for something as supremely important as a ballot.

Read more: THOMAS TASCHINGER: Fuss over voter I.D. laws will look silly later on - Beaumont Enterprise