STOP VOTER FRAUD: REQUIRE ID

Michelle Malkin has a roundup of voter fraud problems that loom large for this election. I don't know how these incidents compare to earlier years, but following the 2000 Presidential Election and the way the Democrats have kept the issue alive despite 9-11 and the results of recounts favoring Bush, I suspect that many Democratic activists are willing to go a little beyond the usual in order to give their candidates an advantage.

The stakes are high for Republicans too, of course, but that kind of thing seems to be more frowned upon. That said, however, I would not be surprised to see allegations of fraud in any races using the Diebold electronic voting machines, due to their well-publicized security issues.

So should we require ID to vote? It's a tricky question.

It's a lot harder to fake an ID card than it is to fake a voter registration; the latter simply requires mailing in a card using a valid address and then taking the card to the polls. But we don't generally require ID in this country; the closest thing we have to a universal identification document is the driver's licence, and that is voluntary.

However, there are already some basic requirements of citizenship that require ID; the most obvious being entering and exitting the country (passports). Reluctant as I am to endorse any serious requirement for a national ID, it is clear that identification documents are a necessity for an honest and fair voting process. The alternative is massive and widespread voter fraud. Some might even say that we are already living the alternative.