Letter: Myths about voter ID

I have to laugh. I recently had a great conversation at the gym. An acquaintance said that Illinois needs voter ID to avoid voter fraud. I had a couple of comebacks: first, voter fraud is so infrequent it needs to be removed from our concerns; second, I said "so this young man is asked to show his ID when buying booze. He reaches in his pocket and thinks 'which one says I'm 21?'" Phony IDs are so available and inexpensive that you might as well have one for every occasion.

Illinois requires a signature to verify who you are when you vote, and that reliable identification step needs to be emphasized as foolproof.

One other point: "Most states have such laws and have seen no drop-off in voter participation compared with those that do not." REALLY? I count: 17 require photo ID, all GOP-controlled states, except NH & WA; 14 non-photo ID; 15 no ID (sorry, but my count comes to 46.)

The GOP has deployed Voter ID to suppress Democrat-faction Black and poor voters who routinely lack such IDs. The GOP-controlled Supreme Court has ruled that they are OK, even though the cases presented evidence of GOP-favoring suppression (those GOP justices just love voter suppression of the "right voters.") I would love to see his evidence for "no drop-off in voter participation compared with those that do not."

Lee Knohl

Evanston