Blunt: ACORN shows need for photo id

Governor Matt Blunt cites the lawsuit against canvassers hired by ACORN over fraudulent voter registration cards in his regular column as a reason to revisit having a photo ID requirement to vote.

Recent allegations of voter fraud in registration cards submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) illustrate the need for changes in Missouri's election procedures. A system that the people do not trust is a system that undermines the people's faith in their elected government.

We must ensure that our elections run smoothly and are free of fraud. Having voters show photo identification at the polls is one of the steps I am working with the General Assembly to implement to protect the integrity of the voting process and your vote. Requiring voters to identify themselves with a photo ID would help deter fraud and ensure that those voting are not voting under a false pretense. It would be a minor inconvenience for many, but it would help ensure that a corrupt few do not steal an election.

As a number of federal and private inquiries have shown, the type of fraud addressed by requiring a photo id, voter impersonation, is, with some individual exceptions, almost non-existant. Mostly because of the high degree of risk to the perpetrator.

The type of fraud alleged to have been conducted by ACORN canvassers is the type of fraud that is more widespread, but has not been shown to have made a significant impact on voting due to the fact that many of the registrations are fictional and that the necessary next step, voter impersonation, rarely occurs.

Where it does have an impact are in cases like petition drives.

One case where both seem to occur was the recall petition filed against Alderman Jeffrey Boyd, Ward 22. A number of the names on the petition were of deceased voters. One person not only appeared to have signed the petition post-mortem, but to have reached out from the grave to pull the lever in the April school board election.

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