Alert! There was a coordinated effort to commit voter fraud this week in New Hampshire.

Conservative activist and film maker James O’Keefe, along with his team, were there to document it.

O’Keefe and company were attempting to demonstrate how one could vote using a dead person’s name to cast a ballot undetected. The group was aiming to highlight the need for a voter ID law in order to prevent voter fraud.

But O’Keefe probably wasn’t expecting that the only people committing voter fraud was his crew. Federal law defines voter fraud as:

The procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held,

David Schultz, a professor of law at Hamline University, believes O’Keefe’s operation wasn’t benign:

“In either case, if they were intentionally going in and trying to fraudulently obtain a ballot, they violated the law . . . So right off the bat, what they did violated the law.”

Proponents of voter ID legislation argue that presenting identification is a simple step to prevent people casting votes for dead people.

Detractors point out it disproportionately affects senior citizens and minorities. They further observe that instances of voter fraud are rare and the negative repercussions are far too sever to justify the law.

What are your thoughts on voter ID laws?