by Can Tran

Created on: March 18, 2008   Last Updated: March 19, 2008

Photo identification is the only surefire way to make sure that the people that show up for the polls to vote are who they say they are. It is a common rule that voters must have their voter ID cards along with any sort of photo identification. A photo ID, in most cases show that you are indeed a United States citizen.

To vote in the United States during any sort of voting for elections or state amendments, one must be at least eighteen years of age and a United States citizen. In a sense, getting carded to vote should be treated as the same way as one is carded before buying alcohol or a pack of cigarettes. You have to be at least eighteen to buy cigarettes and at least twenty-one to buy and consume alcohol.

When you're buying something and paying with a debit card or by a written check, they check your photo ID to make sure that you are actually making the purchase. Nowadays, you won't be able to get anywhere much without having some sort of photo ID. Even if you are buying a videogame with the M-rating, they check your ID. Without proper verification, everything can get torn apart.

Voting should be treated no differently.

In any sort of elections, we get our voters registration card in the mail. On the card, it has your name, birthday, home address, party affiliation, and the location of where you are supposed to be to cast your vote in. The polling location listed on your voter registration card ensures that you are in the correct place.

The birthday on both your voter registration card and your photo ID makes sure that you are in fact the actual person on the list. Polling locations do have a list of people who are supposed to be at there to vote.

Of course there are more than one person that does share the same first name and last name. That does bring up the need of photo identification to make sure that everything is kosher. Without photo identification present, it just gives way to much fraud. It only takes one case of fraud to turn the voting upside down.

A person could easily steal your voter identification card. If they do not check photo identification, that person could easily steal your vote.

One could ask: Why would someone want to steal my vote?

To answer that, one could look at the last two presidential elections. There were many cases of voter fraud and voters being deceived and so forth. The 2004 elections were very interesting. It could be interesting as the current 2008 presidential races and upcoming general elections. However, the 2004 races

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