I thank Sen. Garret Mason for his common sense vote on the proposal to require showing an ID in order to vote. I fail to understand how that is even an issue.

The U.S. and state constitutions both spell out an absolute right to bear arms, yet people have to show an ID in order to buy a gun. The public clearly has a right to travel, but people need an ID to get on a bus or a plane; and people certainly should not drive without one.

With the new Food Stamp cards now having a picture on them, I fail to see how the change on voter IDs would affect poor people. Are there really people too poor to pay for an ID who aren’t getting food stamps? If that is so, maybe the Maine People’s Alliance should try to help those people get the resources available to them, instead of just exploiting them on this issue.

Luckily, the bill itself would provide free IDs for those who cannot afford them. So that argument is false.

Considering that presidential campaigns spend billions of dollars and that even Maine Senate campaigns spend close to half a million dollars, that thousands of people volunteer, and that people get in fights and even kill each other over politics and policy, only a liar or a fool would claim that no one would ever try to vote illegally.

Loretta County, Lisbon