Massachusetts: Mansfield Selectman wants to put voter ID on ballot | The Sun Chronicle Online
Mansfield Selectman Olivier Kozlowski wants voters to make the same effort to prove their identity when they go to the polls as they do at the airport or the checkout line. The attorney and first-term selectman has filed a statewide ballot initiative that would require every Massachusetts voter to bring government-issued photo identification with them when they head to the polls.
“In this day and age, you look at everything you need to show an ID for – everything from renting a car to getting on a plane,” Kozlowski said Wednesday. “We as a society have become accustomed to that. And something as important as voting, you have a right to say: ‘Are you really the person you claim to be?'”
Considered a common-sense precaution against fraud by supporters and an attempt to suppress low-income and minority turnout by opponents, voter identification laws have been debated and approved in several states this year.