I’m reading all the stories about early voting and am getting madder and madder. When the downfall of democracies is written, it is my contention that early voting, motor voter and all the other efforts to “open” the voting process will be judged the cause.

In grad school I coined a phrase for the efforts being pushed by the lefties in my seminars on voting: cheap participation. One colleague was enthusiastic about home voting via one’s TV. He predicted this would be where we would end up. I argued that if that were to happen, the country was doomed. If a person can’t muster the energy or interest to go down to their local elections board and register, and then actually show up at their designated poll on election day, then they have no business voting at all.

Worse, though, is the now-accepted notion that if you want to get a registrant to prove he is who he claims to be you are intimidating that person and engaging in vote suppression. The most valuable thing in a democracy, a lawfully executed ballot, is now in question. Voting officials are settling for less proof of identity than retail checkout clerks. Check out this list of things a registrant can use to “prove” his identity. It’s from 2008electionconnection.com:

* A utility bill from an electric, water, gas, telephone or cell phone, or cable company.
* A bank statement or bank-card statement.
* A paycheck or pay stub.
* Any license, registration, permit, invoice, check, letter or other document from a local, state or federal government agency.
* A student ID with a school document showing the student’s current address.

Notice anything about this list? No photo ID is actually required, though a photo ID will be accepted. If a voting official can’t match a person to the name and address on their utility bill, bank statement or paycheck, how is he to know this person is the same one named on those documents? He can’t. And that’s the problem. But as long as it makes everyone feel good, I guess that’s OK.