Steps must be taken to guarantee that every vote counts. Concord Monitor

Election reform
Steps must be taken to guarantee that every vote counts.

September 20. 2005 8:00AM

We hold this truth to be self-evident: There is at least some fraud in American elections. Many Americans would go much further than that. It's easy to find people who believe the elections of 2000 and 2004 were stolen. Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed in October 2004 distrusted the process. A June 2004 CBS poll found that 85 percent of African-Americans surveyed believed that Al Gore carried Florida.

Widespread concern that the will of the people is being subverted is dangerous. To work, the system must be at least credible. Otherwise, why vote?

Yesterday the bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform made 87 recommendations designed to restore faith in the process. We don't agree with all of them, but many make sense and should be implemented before the 2008 election - or even before November 2006.

The most controversial proposal calls for the issuance of photo identification cards for voters. The cards would be linked to a national registry. They would be free and available to non-drivers. During stepped-up state voter registration drives, citizens who did not yet have them could get them at mobile centers.

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