Feb 20, 2015 3 min read

Editorial voices from newspapers around the United States as compiled by the Associated Press:

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted often warned about the discussion of voter fraud and voter suppression tipping too easily into partisan hyperbole. Voices of alarm sounded again. This time, they are fueled by a letter from Husted to President Obama last month.

Husted expressed his concern the president’s recent decision to remove the threat of deportation for roughly 4.5 million illegal immigrants increases the likelihood of illegal voting. The secretary urged the federal government to provide states with access to electronic databases of non-citizens with Social Security numbers. In that way, states would be positioned to conduct checks and protect the voter rolls.

The request is reasonable. It also should be stressed just how small the problem is.

As Husted explained to a U.S. House committee last week, the verification process using driver’s license information found 291 noncitizens registered to vote in the 2012 presidential election. That’s out of 5.6 million votes cast.

When a person registers to vote, the application process makes plain: Do so illegally, and you commit a felony. That serves as a powerful deterrent.

All of that is worth keeping in mind as opponents of the president’s executive action fan fury. Deserving attention, too, is the unintended yet strong argument Husted made for immigration reform, something that would address his small problem and many much larger.

Four U.S. senators who may be viewed by some as unlikely allies are sponsoring a bill that could be one small step toward a rational defense spending policy.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. joined with Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Ted Cruz, R-Texas; and Rand Paul, R-Ky., on the bill. Their bill would require the Defense Department be prepared for an audit by 2017.

As Manchin pointed out in a news release, the Pentagon “is the only federal agency that has never fully complied with financial management laws and currently remains on the Government Accountability Office’s ‘high risk’ list for waste, fraud and abuse.”

A full audit could identify at least some of the improper spending and allow Congress to crack down – if it will.

That brings up a necessary second step in military spending reforms – eliminating the practice of so many in Congress of appropriating billions of dollars for military hardware the Pentagon does not want or need. That may be a tougher nut to crack.

Until 1977, Iowa was one of only a few states that did not require any immunizations for schoolchildren. The state also had the highest per capita incidence of both measles and mumps in the country. State lawmakers overwhelmingly approved legislation requiring children to be immunized against six diseases before they could attend a school or child care.

Flash forward almost 40 years. Preventable diseases are gaining a foothold because an anti-vaccine movement is encouraging parents not to vaccinate their children.

Some parents continue to ignore science, history and the entire global medical community on this issue. This includes too many parents in Iowa. State law allows schoolchildren to forgo vaccines for medical or religious reasons.

Today the state’s religious exemption is a free-for-all. Parents who consider celebrities, politicians and charlatans their “religious” leaders are able to use it.

Administrative rules can be changed. Better yet, lawmakers could nix the religious exemption from Iowa Code. Mississippi and West Virginia allow exemptions only for medical conditions. A parent’s personal, religious, or philosophical beliefs don’t matter, and state officials have stood by the strict guidelines. They know vaccines save lives and protect everyone.