Americans deserve a safe and secure election process, and they are losing confidence in our system. Headlines from Rasmussen polling such as, “A majority of voters suspect recent elections have been affected by cheating” and “More than 20% of voters who used
mail-in ballots in 2020 admit they participated in at least one form of election fraud,” point to problems. Rasmussen polling also shows that 77% of U.S. voters want Voter ID

Voter ID is a world-wide practice used by around 99% of countries as a first step to prevent fraud. Maine is one of 15 states that do not require an ID to vote. Use of Voter ID was one of the major recommendations from the 2005 Carter- Baker Election Integrity
Commission. That bipartisan commission had five major recommendations, 1) A national system to connect state and local voter registration lists.  2) Voter identification based on a universally available REAL ID card. 3) Policies to improve voter access for
all communities, as well as innovations like vote centers and voter information lookup sites. 4) Stronger efforts to combat fraud, especially in absentee voting.  5) Auditable paper backups for all voting technology. None of the “election integrity” recommendations
in that report have been fully implemented. On the contrary, changes in voting have made elections even less secure.

Voter integrity shouldn’t be a partisan issue.  A 2022 Rasmussen poll, found that “90% of Republicans, 59% of Democrats, and 75% of unaffiliated voters, “think requiring a photo ID to vote is a reasonable measure to protect the integrity of elections.”   It
is time for Maine to step up and take the first tiny step recommended 20 years ago.