No more voting without ID

Election Day will be good. Very good.

Despite not being wealthy, I recently acquired 22 domiciles throughout Philadelphia, which affords me a unique opportunity to make a difference in the lives of citizens.

I can vote 22 times.

You see, I’ve staked out prime locations, from a cardboard box under the Walt Whitman Bridge to a culvert on Cobbs Creek Parkway to a burntout shell at Seventh and Diamond. Yes, technically, habitating at these locations makes me “homeless,” but I much prefer the term “voter-enfranchised.”

Incredible as it seems, voters in Pennsylvania don’t have to show any identification whatsoever at the polls, with the exception of the first time, when a nonphoto ID, such as a utility bill, is all that is needed. And even that’s a stretch, since some deceased folks, who by definition cannot produce identification, still manage to vote. So in Philadelphia, among other places, voters whose “address” is a park bench or condemned house may well be pulling the lever.

This system has made multiple-voting quite easy — especially with ripe-for-fraud mailin ballots — and affords a vote to those who aren’t registered, as well as those not permitted to cast a ballot, such as illegal immigrants, since we aren’t checking citizenship status, either.

Unquestionably, allowing people to vote who are not properly registered disenfranchises those who play by the rules and cast a ballot the proper way. In other words, every illegal vote nullifies a legitimate one.

As far as access to an ID, is it so excruciatingly difficult to produce a passport, driver’s license, or employee, government, or student photo identification? And many states provide a government-sanctioned non-driver’s license ID free of charge. Getting past the rhetoric, it has yet to be shown how a voter identification requirement negatively affects students and the disabled, and “disproportionately” impacts elderly, the working poor, and racial minorities.

Voter ID is a policy with which an overwhelming number of Americans agree. And the rationale is simple: what could be easier and more common sense that documenting who you claim to be when participating in the most fundamental American right? After all, we live in a society where one must show ID to enter office buildings, travel on airplanes and trains, get a COVID vaccine, and even buy antihistamine. It is high-time we give that same level of importance to voting.

At one point in our history, Americans were subjected to treatment at the polls which was truly disenfranchising, such as poll taxes, literacy tests and property ownership requirements. Thankfully, such practices have been rescinded, and comparing them to Voter ID is downright insulting to those who fought for the right to vote.

Perhaps the most important reason for tightening voting rules is that it’s the only way to restore faith in the integrity of our elections. Clearly, the unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud by President Trump after the 2020 election didn’t convey confidence in the process, but the point is the same regarding all of those elections: if the integrity of elections is to again become sacrosanct, and partisanship is kept out of the equation, election results can be accepted at face-value, no matter how bitter a pill the outcome may be. And given that large percentages on both sides view election results with suspicion, if not outright rejection, it is more important than ever that we enact reforms quickly.

But we will never reach that point if such common sense reforms are constantly criticized for the sake of political advantage.

One blaring example is opposition to new laws requiring voters to write their driver’s license number, state ID number, or the last four of their social security number on their mail-in ballot. How any reasonable person can oppose such a ridiculously easy measure is inconceivable.

But even worse is the claim that it’s “suppressing the vote” of minorities. Not only is that light-years from being accurate, but is, without a doubt, a racist and condescending mentality.

The American voting system isn’t perfect, and never will be, but ID laws will go a long way to restoring our unique power to choose our own destiny.

And you can vote on that.