5/18/2016
The Lay of the Land
By Lyn Messersmith
ID Required
Our insistence on eliminating the personal touch has become ridiculous. And the unintended consequences may be dangerous.
I hope you voted last week. The one thing that was non-negotiable in my family of origin was voting. I’ve shoveled snowdrifts to get to a polling place, packed crying babies along, and endured all manner of inconveniences. The reward for that was getting to chat with neighbors in the community hall and then heading across the road to sample the soup and pie provided by the Brownlee Women’s Club. I’ve never bought a pie from the supermarket but often purchased a whole one from the Women’s Club. When you know the baker it’s pretty hard to resist.
But those days are gone since Cherry County implemented voting by mail. Sure, it’s convenient, but it feels more like filling out a government survey, and somehow the pride in having done my civic duty is dimmed.
Whenever I mark the ballot and add my signature, I wonder how much voter fraud happens with the new system. I’ve always thought voter ID is a good idea, even though out here the election board knew me by sight. Now, there’s no way to know if it was really my signature on the envelope. I heard of one person who moved out of state and still received a ballot. They returned the ballot, and gave notice of the move, but next election brought another ballot, which was returned. On the third occasion, a family member contacted the Secretary of State, who checked the files and noted that the out of state resident had indeed voted in the last election. Identity theft comes in many packages.
I have a bit of personal experience in that area. Some years ago, I applied for a passport. Gave them the birth certificate my mother had kept all those years and was told it wasn’t official. Contacted the Bureau of Vital Statistics to see what it would take to get the proper document. They wanted a baptismal record, a record of my entry into school, and something from the hospital where I was born. Bit of a problem. The church where I was baptized was torn down when the interstate went through. The school I attended is no more, and someone burned all those records. The hospital no longer exists either. The census for the year after my birth doesn’t list me. It finally was resolved, but the first two “official” birth certificates that were sent had to be returned. On one, I had no last name, and on the other my mother was not listed. Obviously, just because something is written somewhere and stamped with a seal, it isn’t necessarily so.
Recently, I needed to have a prescription renewed before refilling it. No longer can I call the doctor’s office with a request. Call the pharmacy and they will go through the proper channels. So, how does the person at the pharmacy know it is me that called? Anyone who got hold of the old bottle could read off the prescription number and use my name.
I must show ID at the hospital when I go for a test. At the gas stations when I write a check, and half a dozen other places. There are some huge cracks in the system these days, and you wonder how many dishonest people slip through them.
It’s been a lot of years since I ordered a drink at a bar, but I imagine that’s one place where no one would card me. This gray hair might have something to do with that but it doesn’t solve the phone renewals or the ballot sent by mail.
