I have been mulling over the recent news articles on the requirement that people must have a picture ID in order to vote.

My first reaction was that it was completely unnecessary. When you register to vote, you show an ID and your name and address are posted on a list at the polling place.

That an ID is unnecessary is partly due to our early history of small towns and villages. Everybody knew everybody else. It would be (was in my village) virtually impossible to do anything at all without the town busybodies knowing about it, and that would extend to voting twice.

But if we now live anonymously in large cities, isn't a voter ID a good idea?

The thought occurs to me that the first step a totaliarian government takes is to label and identify its citizens with a government-issued ID, then tell them where they can live and how they must work for the greater glory of the Tyrant.

A secret ballot is essential to the exercise of citizen choice. But, like accusers in a trial, voter identity must be known to prevent double voting, ballot fraud of various sorts.

Perhaps voting by computer would resolve that issue. One computer per person (government-issued), one vote. Hah. We can't even get the government behind a decent wage, food and housing, let alone a computer.

When I went to vote, I showed the poll worker my ID and she said all I had to do was sign next to my address, which was listed in the book. If I were homeless, I guess I'd have been disenfranchised.

But if all that was required was a picture ID, even the homeless could vote. Political parties, non profit organizations, etc., would have to make the "get out the vote" effort include assisting needy people to get an ID. Just because they don't have one now doesn't mean they couldn't get one. And it needn't require a birth certificate.