Voter I.D. a political ploy

It's voting time, and the issue of voter I.D. is active in numerous states, including Wisconsin. The argument of those who favor picture voter I.D. is that the state needs to hold each vote as legitimate to ensure that there is no voter fraud via voter impersonation.

Although this argument has been widely used to justify creating state laws that would make it more difficult for certain numbers of citizens to exercise their right to vote, those who favor such restrictive measures (reducing or eliminating early voting, reducing the number of polling places and times of opening, charging fees to find birth certificates if one exists, not having same day registration, not accepting student I.D.'s, etc.) have never been able to demonstrate any statistical evidence to substantiate and justify their position.

In a recent debate with his opponent, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said, "Be there one, a hundred or a thousand cases of voter fraud, one is too many to tolerate." Wisconsin is still looking for that one. Studies of Wisconsin elections in 2004, 2008 and 2012 found no cases of voter fraud.

The annals of American history are blood soaked by your ancestors and mine who have given their lives to get and to protect the primary value afforded in our democracy - the right to vote. Unfortunately the history of elites is to try to secure and keep their ruling status, not with a high sense of democratic decency and dignity afforded to each individual, but by structurally denying those of a lesser class the voting voice. Those who stand in the way to the voting booth, stand against the most basic of American rights.

Thomas McGrath

Arlington Heights