Unbearable Hardship for Voters

According to the Idaho Press-Tribune

A bill that would require voters to show identification could slow the election process in Canyon County or force the county to hire more poll workers.

No one wants to hear this, we all lead busy lives and having to put up with a new delay to slow our busy lives is a heckuva drag. As that's the lead to a story drawing attention to a significant problem with a bill working its way through the State Legislature, surely we're talking about a major delay, right? So exactly how much longer is it going to take to vote if this thing becomes a law?

Checking voters' identification would take each voter about 20 seconds longer to vote, Canyon County Deputy Clerk Brad Jackson said.

20 seconds? Twenty whole seconds? Intolerable!! Why, I can type 27 words in that time! Who wants to wait that long? It's like a whole third of the time it should take to get a Whopper. And those crazy people we elected (some of us anyway) would put us through such adversity?

Personally, I've always found it impossible to believe that you don't have to do more to prove who you are to vote--I have a harder time getting Chicago Connection to take a check than I do getting a ballot.

How many of our countrymen have died so that we could vote? How much blood, sweat and tears have been spilt to preserve, to protect, and to make use of that right? And we're gonna complain about a lousy 20 seconds?

To get on a plane anymore we stand like sheep waiting to be shorn and slip off our shoes and let them measure our conditioner and shampoo. Before long, without much more than a murmur, we'll subject ourselves to virtual strip searches--and who knows what other indignities are coming next? We roll over for whatever impingement the Federal Government wants to put on our civil liberties in the name of "safety", "security" or the "war on drugs." But something that will slow things down for us at the polls by less than a minute? That's what gets the exclamation points? Really?

Sure, we could end up having to hire more workers to help out, so there's an economic side to this, and today, that's a legitimate concern. But then again...is helping out with 20 seconds worth that?

Jackson said voter fraud is not a problem in Canyon County and he questions whether the voter identification bill passed by the Idaho House Monday is needed. . . .

But Jackson said voter fraud is so rare in Canyon County that requiring identification to vote like the bill does would be unnecessary.

"If voter fraud was a big issue I would say that checking IDs would make a significant difference," Jackson said. "I just don't see voter fraud as being a sufficient issue."

Now I get that he's speaking from his perspective as a Canyon County worker, but is the lack of a problem in our one county enough to call into question the necessity of a law for the whole state? (and that's granting that it isn't a problem here) Who does he think he works for, Ada County?

"There's a lot more concern about fraud then the reality of the situation," he said.

Thank the Lord for that, Mr. Jackson--isn't that the way it's supposed to be? Are you really suggesting we should be blase about voter fraud until the populace of Kohlerlawn vote Tom Dale in for yet another term?