The Herald staffer argued that the voter, a woman, should have been denied the opportunity to vote because the driver’s license she presented was no longer valid. Other forms of acceptable identification include a currently valid Utah permit to carry a concealed weapon, a currently valid U.S. passport, or a valid tribal I.D. card even if it has no picture. Alternatively, you can show two forms of identification having no photo and be allowed to vote — a current utility bill, a bank statement, a certified birth certificate, a Utah hunting license or any of a host of other documents.

But isn’t the point of showing identification simply to prove you are who you say you are? Your driver’s license may have been cancelled, but you have not been cancelled as a person. There you are, standing right in front of the poll workers. They can look at your expired photo I.D. and confirm who you are. They could ask annoying questions about why your license was revoked — which might be a very interesting way to break the monotony of handing out voting cards — but they can’t very well say that that’s not you in the picture.

Current validity has nothing to do with it. How many current driver’s licenses out there show an address different from the voter’s current address, for instance? Bottom line: An expired photo I.D. is a way better confirmation of one’s identity than a utility bill or a hunting license. Even a current Utah vehicle registration (another acceptable document) doesn’t identify a voter as well as an expired photo I.D. Every election day, as everybody knows, there’s a rash of little old ladies raiding mailboxes for utility bills and breaking into cars for registrations so they can commit voter fraud in somebody else’s name without having to show a picture.

Naturally, I won the argument.