Maine has real problems with its economy, the cost of health care, education and energy and a state government that does not take in enough revenue to keep the promises of the past. There should be plenty for lawmakers to do.

So why are they taking time in the crucial last days of the legislative session attempting to fix problems that they can’t prove actually exist?

Additional Photos

Kelsey Barton, who was a senior at Cape Elizabeth High School at the time, receives her voter registration card from deputy town clerk Jackie Coy as she registered to vote for the first time in May, when voters in Maine's District 7 were asked to fill a vacant Senate seat and to decide school budget issues. The House has backed a bill to eliminate same-day voter registration, a move likely to discourage voting. Election 2011 Legislature 2011 Press Herald file photo

On Monday, the House passed a pair of bills on essentially party-line votes that would make it more difficult for people to vote. L.D. 199 requires voters to present a photo ID before they can cast a ballot. L.D. 1376 would, among other things, eliminate same-day voter registration, a feature of Maine law for 38 years.

The Republican backers of both bills say they are needed to protect the integrity of Maine’s elections, which is something worth protecting.

But they don’t tell us what the process needs protection from, and they offer no evidence other than a hunch that voter fraud may be occurring. Since the proposed protections would discourage an unknown number of eligible voters from casting a ballot, the bills’ supporters ought to come up with more than just a hunch.

The integrity of elections is important, and recent history has shown that a small number of votes can decide a race. Lawmakers should do what’s needed to keep ineligible people from voting, but they should be just as concerned about making sure that all eligible people who want to vote can do so.

According to state records, 20,000 people registered on Election Day last year, which was more than twice Gov. LePage’s margin of victory over Eliot Cutler. Some number of voters who don’t have an ID, including senior citizens, disabled people or high school students of voting age, could also have been turned away.

Depending on how those votes were distributed, losing those voters could have changed the outcome of the race.

These are interesting issues to ponder, but this is hardly the time. Maine faces serious problems, and there’s no proof that voter fraud is one of them.

The Senate should kill these bills and tackle something that would really make a difference.

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