Kerby Anderson

As we approach the November midterm elections, it is worth mentioning once again the need for states and local jurisdictions to clean up their voter rolls. The recent special election in Ohio was yet another reminder of the fact that there is still lots of work to be done. The race between Republican Troy Balderson and Democrat Danny O’Connor ended up being very close. That means that counting of absentee ballots and provisional ballots will be important and could make the difference. Close elections like this illustrate the need for accurate voter rolls and the need for voter ID. One expert with the Government Accountability Institute reports that there were 170 registered voters in Ohio’s 12^thCongressional District that were listed as being over 116 years old.” In case you are wondering, the world’s oldest living person is a 115-year-old resident of Japan. You would think that fact alone would be reason enough to start cleaning up the voter rolls and to implement voter ID. But just look at the responses on Twitter when Shannon Bream of Fox News posted her tweet about “170 Voters in Ohio Race Over 116 Years Old.” Or look at the responses when talk show host Kevin McCullough posted that this was an argument for voter ID. The responses range from claims that voter ID is racist and elitist to those who point to voter fraud that led to the election of Donald Trump. That one got me. On the one hand, they believe that Russian tampering led to the illegitimate election of the president, but also believe that there is no possibility that election fraud could occur in the recent congressional special election. One report estimates that there are 248 counties in this country that have more names on their voter rolls than the total number of people of voting age in those counties. That is too much opportunity for mischief. It is time to clean the voter rolls.