Require voters to show photo ID

Recently, liberal critics have complained that laws requiring voters to show a photo ID before they can vote discriminates against the poor and are as unfair as were the poll taxes of the south after the Civil War.

What they are ignoring is the fact that the 11 states that recently passed voter ID laws - Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, South Dakota and Tennessee - all allow voters to cast “provisional” ballots if they don't have a proper photo ID and that anybody who needs a photo ID can get one free at all driver's license stations in each state.

Also not usually mentioned by critics is that 1.8 million dead people are still registered to vote and that 2.75 million people are registered to vote in two or more states. Fraudulent voting has been documented in 46 states, including Iowa. The failure to require every voter to prove who they are, whether they are a citizen, their age, and address, is an open invitation for some to vote more than once.

We live in a country where our ancestors sacrificed their lives and possessions to provide us with the freedom to elect governments that are fair to everybody and do not favor one group over another. Let's protect our elections by making all voters prove they are who they say they are before allowing them to vote. Require all voters to show a valid photo ID.

J. Fred Doornbos

Iowa City