Today, Mississippi voters had better bring their wallets and purses with them as they head to the polls.

The party primaries today will be the first statewide elections to utilize Mississippi’s new voter ID law.

In the past, a person could simply walk up to the poll, say the name of a registered voter and vote.

That system assumed that all citizens were honest and that no one would ever claim to be someone they were not.

Common sense will tell you that some people in the world have no problem being dishonest.

We’ve all heard complaints through the years about deceased people having cast ballots or dishonest residents casting ballots in multiple precincts by simply pretending to be someone they are not.

Whether or not this sort of chicanery actually occurred or was simply rumor is difficult to know.

We do know, however, that politics will corrupt, and the thirst for power or money may drive people to behave poorly and lack good judgment.

The voter ID requirement will not eliminate all monkey business from our state’s election system, but voter ID should at least close up a few potential loopholes in the system.

If that happens, voter ID will have proved its worth for many years to come.