No matter how hard people try to create systems with no flaws, all fail. No system is perfect. Even the most secure, most protected systems can be broken by someone smart enough or willing to stay at it long enough.

Criminals have a unique way of sniffing out the weakest link and exploiting it for their own profit.

We’re fairly confident such shenanigans have been going on in Mississippi’s elections for years and years. Allegations of dead men voting always surface.

It’s difficult to know just how widespread such behavior may be. But in the end, it doesn’t matter if it’s widespread. The fact that we all know the weak link in the state elections process exists should be enough to make us change.

That desire to stop a potential wrongdoing and ensure the process is at the very least just a bit more on the up and up led Mississippi voters to support a voter ID effort in 2011. The Legislature subsequently put voter ID into law the following year.

Next summer’s statewide party primary will be the first election in which voters will be required to show a form of ID prior to voting.

State experts suggest approximately 99 percent of Mississippi’s population actually has a proper ID to use come Election Day. The state is working hard to reach the other 1 percent so that no voter is disenfranchised as part of the voter ID implementation process.

We hope and expect the extra requirement to show a photo ID will help curb potential voter fraud.

Could these same criminals manufacture fraudulent photo IDs?

Sure, but doing so is more difficult and requires more forethought than simply showing up at a polling place and pretending to be someone else and casting a vote.

Voter ID is a step in the right direction. While it won’t make the election system perfect, it removes one huge potential flaw.