Your March 12 editorial (“Legislature must make sure N.O. recall mess doesn’t spread across Louisiana”) does bring up some intriguing issues, but it did overlook a key provision of Louisiana voting law that bears mentioning.
A voter’s primary interaction with the voting rolls is on Election Day. A recall petition likely ranks a very, very distant secondary interaction (there are not that many recall petitions).
The Louisiana Voter ID requirement offers a mitigation measure against errors/neglect in the voter rolls. Voter ID serves to mitigate the errors by triangulating photo ID, name and address carried on voter rolls. Registrars are humans and humans are prone to errors and/or procrastination with no nefarious intent.
By having and enforcing a voter ID law, folks who have not correctly been purged from active voting rolls will be required to show a valid photo ID which matches that of registration. If the name and address on the valid ID presented does not match that carried on the voter roll, a provisional ballot is cast and subject to verification before officially entered.
The percent participation of the election may be in error, but voter ID does offer insurance that only legal, eligible voters are allowed to vote in the election.
G.A. WILLIAMS
Sunset
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