Response to Assault on Voting Rights

Your response to this simply left out one word ..... ”LEGALLY” ! Please explain to me why voter ID coupled with an increase in voting sites would not make sense to anyone. All legally registered Americans of age need to be have reasonable access to vote .... LEGALLY within a process that does everything possible to eliminate fraudulent activity. Making it “easy” without protecting our voting process just does not work.

— A reader

I don’t think explicitly saying “legally” changes what I wrote. I wrote that all citizens need to have easy and reasonable access to voting. The problem with ID requirements is that they are written too narrowly and require a cost-restricted hurdle for some people. When you’re worrying about feeding your kids or paying the $80 for a government issued ID card, that money is better spent on feeding your kids. That means poor people are under-represented in the voting process and the most vulnerable populations don’t have a say in who leads their communities. Make IDs more accessible and help all of our citizens get ID for free, then I might be more in line with the voter ID laws.

I also don’t understand why this myth exists “Fraudulent activity” is rampant in our system. Yes, there is some voter fraud, but it is rare and has not happened in large enough numbers to impact the outcome of elections. Yes, of course we should be vigilant and punish people caught doing it, but we can’t use that as an excuse to disenfranchise more voters. — Ed Note

Got something you want to get off your chest? To contribute to Back Talk, call Ed at 609-3580861 or email him at EdNote@ Trentonian.com.