Editor,
Jeremy Reynalds’ Feb. 9 column regarding Rep. Joe Thompson’s bill requiring photo identification at polling places hit the nail on the head.
In politics, few issues have a clear right or wrong. Joe Thompson is clearly in the right. Those who would support this bill are supporting the true spirit of the electoral process. Those who would oppose it — the majority party of the New Mexico legislature — support the archaic system that has played a major part in keeping them in power for more than 70 years.
When liberals squeal about “disenfranchisement,” they don’t mean living up to the spirit and letter of electoral law. They mean supporting a process that panders to their power base, but which does not support honest and fair elections. The people who commit election fraud — and let’s be frank, it doesn’t just happen in Chicago, it happens in our own back yard — commit the most serious disenfranchisement by their actions. When a group of people cram ballot boxes with dozens of illegal votes, they invalidate the votes of those of us who subscribe to the “one person, one vote” principle.
The opposition to this bill by Rep. Sandoval and Picraux is a shameless device to keep their iron grip on power. Anybody who thinks elections shouldn’t be fixed, stacked or rigged should be outraged by their arrogance.
I applaud Thompson for his actions. Part of me hopes he has to bring the bill up repeatedly to drive the point home that the Democrat Party of New Mexico is strictly concerned with its majority status and have little consideration to honesty in elections. But that would mean more fixed elections, so I urge everybody who does really care to contact their own legislator.
For those with Republican legislators, tell them to support Rep. Thompson. If he or she is a Democrat, ask them to buck their own leadership and do the right thing.
Reed Crespin
UNM student
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