In response to M.D. Harmon’s recent commentary — Which part of “getting your head handed to you by the electorate” do you not understand?

Voter ID cards? Are you nuts? Ask a couple of town clerks like I did and they will explain the problems with this plan — here are a couple:

* Taking the time to look at these will slow down voting, for everyone.

* People who have ID will show up without it, a lot of people. As one explained it to me — for at least 10 years there has been a requirement to show proof of insurance when registering your car, yet more than 20 percent of people show up without their insurance card.

Here’s a third reason — those “free” ID cards and “mobile teams” cost money, taxpayer’s money. While we’re on the subject of mobile teams, those will be sent to every college campus in Maine to issue free voter IDs to students, right?

Last time I checked, Gov. Paul LePage and our GOP-controlled Legislature were all about cutting government spending. I guess we’ll have to see which is more important, saving money or making it inconvenient to vote.

By all accounts, Maine doesn’t have a voter fraud problem. Before we establish another state-mandated ID requirement, let’s have a good reason.

 

Alan Tibbetts

Sidney