Arizona Moves to Protect Legal Votes

The L.A. Times has a front-page story today charging that Arizona's tougher new voter identification law is disenfranchising legal voters who are somehow unable to dig up a birth certificate or passport.

The paper also tries to drum up sympathy for a legal resident who has been charged with a felony because he knowingly falsely affirmed he was a citizen and voted in the last Presidential election. He didn't think the citizenship issue was any big deal because he's lived here a long time. I suspect the paper wants conservatives to feel sorry for him as they mention he's a Christian who voted for President Bush.

I'm far more concerned about legal voters being disenfranchised by having their votes offset by illegal voters. Voter fraud in all forms is a growing scandal (I highly recommend John Fund's Stealing Elections), and I applaud the State of Arizona for addressing the issue with reasonable identification requirements.

(Registration may be required by The Los Angeles Times.)