Letter: Show me the voting fraud!

There is sufficient cause to stand up to both real and perceived voter-barrier laws even if those barriers are not that high in the opinion of staff editors. Each and every barrier to protect the integrity of the voting process should not outweigh the collective and individual basic American right to vote.

A state’s right to create and enforce voter and voting standards must be based on the perceived need to protect the integrity of the right and the process to vote, and not on the perceived or real desire to create an advantage for any political party or candidate, where perception, rather than fact, seems to rule or govern. Evidence of voter fraud should require an appropriate measure to avoid such occurrence, but any barrier must be factual and not utilized as the basis for, or as a method of, voter suppression.

So, the issue for me is, show me the fraud! Without a material evidentiary basis for the barrier, there is really no need for a legal barrier standard, which the opinion staff should have addressed before deciding whether the lawful standard is “not that high.” After all, the right to vote is fundamental.

A personal dissenting opinion,

Donald Johnson, judge

19th Judicial District
Baton Rouge