When I read articles and letters like the one published Monday, “Voter ID measure is a costly error that make claims about some absurdly low number of fraud cases,” I have to wonder where people get their information — are they just making it up?

In this instance (and I’ve seen the claim before), the writer claims, “Nationally, something like 13 cases of voter fraud have been found in the last 10 years.”

That just doesn’t jibe with reality. According to Minnesota’s court records, over 150 people have been convicted for voter fraud just in our little old state, since the 2008 election. This is an objective, verifiable fact.

How can the two sides in the debate be so far from agreement on objective facts? Why isn’t our local press investigating and publishing the facts, instead of “he said, she said.”

If the opponents can’t even correctly report the scope of the fraud problem, I’d suggest that their cost estimates for implementing voter ID might be a bit suspect as well. How much can it really cost to show an ID? The state will have to hand them out for free, so that’ll cost something: Maybe a dollar per ID. If we can believe the opponents who say there are 200,000 people who need ID, that still doesn’t add up to much.

 

Annie Schleck

Albert Lea