An editorial from The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — At first blush, stricter voter identification laws might seem to be a good idea.
Laws requiring voters to present an ID at the polls have now been passed in 33 states with the idea that they make it harder for a person to come to the polls pretending to be someone they are not.
But as the laws have been implemented in other states, the results show they uncovered very little fraud of that variety — deception in-person at the polls. For example, a statewide study in Ohio several years ago found four instances of ineligible people attempting to vote in the 2002 and 2004 elections, out of 9 million votes cast.
Where fraud seems to be most prevalent is with absentee ballots, vote buying and crooked politicians and election officials. That is certainly what we have seen in West Virginia, but the Voter ID bill passed by the West Virginia House last week would do nothing to prevent those types of shenanigans…