As a former election worker, ward clerk and warden for more than 20 years and recent poll watcher, I haven’t seen any fraud, and therefore there is no need to spend a quarter-million tax dollars to create a voter ID system.

Our democracy is best when people speak up with their vote; at least I thought that is what people believe. Instead, some elected Republican officials in the Maine Legislature seem to be determined to prevent people from voting by inventing phony voter fraud stories.

They want to create unnecessary barriers to voters participating in the political process by requiring photo IDs on Election Day.

When it was pointed out that some people would not have driver’s licenses, the solution was to spend $250,000 to provide IDs. In a year when we are told over and over there is no money for anything, we’re broke, time to tighten our belts. Where’s the common sense?

Why do our legislators think people are flocking to the polls to cast phony ballots, anyway?

When I go to my polling place on Election Day, I give them my name and address, they check it off and I get to cast my ballot. That’s how it should be. I’ve never had a problem with this in the past and I don’t expect I will in the future, unless it is with elected officials trying to silence my vote.

Diane T. Grandmaison, Lewiston