Chasing phantom fraud.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The House of Representatives, desperate to give Americans an election-year reason to believe it has taken steps to combat illegal immigration, approved a bill Wednesday requiring that voters provide photo identification and proof of citizenship before casting ballots.

The bill would throw sand in the gears of Oregon's vote-by-mail system in an effort to solve a nonexistent problem.

To comply with the Federal Election Integrity Act, Oregon voters returning their mail-in ballots would have to include a photocopy of their driver's license, passport or other government-issued form of identi- fication.

Secretary of State Bill Bradbury calls it the "Oregon Copier Acquisition Act." Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio, who voted against the bill, raised privacy concerns: Many voters would be reluctant to stuff copies of their identity documents into envelopes and put them in the mail, without knowing who would review them or whether they'd be filed or shredded.

Republican Greg Walden was the only member of Oregon's House delegation to support the bill, and he did so only after receiving assurances that concerns about effects on the vote-by-mail system would be addressed. Even so, Walden raised the prospect of people in his rural district having to drive for miles to make copies of their identification before voting. The primary advantage of voting by mail - its convenience - would be lost.

Some inconvenience would be worth enduring if it improved the integrity of the election system. Speaking to the City Club of Eugene last May, Bradbury noted that it is already a Class C felony to provide false information on a voter registration form. The crime is punishable by imprisonment and, in the case of illegal aliens, deportation.

"Ask yourself," Bradbury said, "whether it really makes sense for an illegal immigrant to attach their name and address to a government form that puts them at a greater risk of deportation."

Apparently it doesn't make sense. Oregonians have cast 10 million votes since the vote-by-mail system was adopted for all elections in 1998, Bradbury said. Only 10 of those votes have resulted in investigations, and only two cases of fraud have been prosecuted.

In Washington state's governor's race of 2004, one of the closest elections in history, every ballot was closely reviewed by monitors from both parties who had a strong incentive to find miscast votes for the other side. None was found to have been cast by an illegal alien.

Even if the bill's sponsor keeps his promise to Walden, the primary effect of the Federal Election Integrity Act would be to discourage voting by citizens who lack proper or up-to-date identification. Not surprisingly, these citizens tend to be poor, mobile or members of racial or ethnic minorities. Such people tend to vote Democratic. That explains why Wednesday's vote broke mainly along party lines.

A far bigger concern about election integrity has to do not with how ballots are cast, but how they're counted. Electronic voting machines in some states are widely suspected of being vulnerable to tampering, and in many cases leave no paper records that can be scrutinized in recounts. The Federal Election Integrity Act does nothing to address this problem, while Oregon's vote-by-mail system, which generates a paper trail in every county, would be burdened with a useless and invasive identification requirement.

The country needs serious action to address the issues of illegal immigration and elections integrity. The bill approved by the House on Wednesday provides neither.