'Voter ID' issue is a distraction

Recent letters to the editor and some columns in this paper demonstrate an appalling lack of understanding of "the voting issue." Proper voter ID is the distraction rather than a main concern.

The process of voting and getting it on the scoreboard has many steps - registering, obtaining a ballot (by mail or in person), casting a ballot (at the polls, by mail or at a drop box), counting the ballots and auditing and/or rechecking the count. In presidential election years, a slate of state electors must be selected and electoral votes must be forwarded to Congress. Finally, Congress certifies the winner. Each step provides opportunities for suppressing or subverting the vote and the count.

The Brennan Center for Justice has tracked election law changes at the state level since 2011. They report that more than 440 bills with provisions that restrict voting access have been introduced in 49 states in the 2021 legislative sessions. Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 7 of 2021, at least 19 states passed 34 laws restricting access to voting.

In Texas, for example, voters wishing to mail in a ballot early must remember the exact form of identification (Social Security number or driver's license number) and list that on their application. And in Texas, it is now illegal for the office supervising the vote to "promote mail-in votes" in any fashion. So, they can't help voters to correct their rejected application without subjecting themselves to criminal prosecution.

In the current election cycle, the rejection rate is somewhere between 25% and 50%.

This newspaper could provide a real service by disabusing everyone of the notion that the principal concern here is voter ID. That is the shiny distraction. More serious and less obvious methods are under way to suppress or subvert the vote and, more importantly, the count.

Lynn Jensen

Arlington Heights