For those who do not know how other democracies treat voting laws, here are the facts. Forty-six of 47 European countries require government-issued photo ID to vote. The United Kingdom is the exception, but the British Parliament is considering a nationwide voter ID requirement, which will make photo ID a universal requirement for voting in Europe.
Canada requires photo ID to vote. Mexico requires an ID with a hologram and thumbprint to vote. John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, points out that since adoption of voter reforms in Mexico, voter participation increased from 59% to 68% because citizens were “more … likely to vote when they had confidence that their votes mattered.”
As for mail-in voting, 35 of 47 European countries do not allow absentee voting for citizens living in-country. Another 10, including England, allow absentee voting but require voters to show up in person and present photo ID to pick up their ballots. Canada allows absentee balloting for any reason, including being away on Election Day, which is the same as the U.S.
No country allows universal mail-in balloting other than the U.S. Most of those countries have learned that mail-in voting provides too many opportunities for fraud, from fake signatures to signature verification issues to ballot harvesting.
The U.S. needs to catch up to the rest of the democratic world and protect the sanctity of the vote.
Bob Jacobs
Unity