When considering the very serious issue of voter fraud, it is important to ask the right questions: How easy would it be to commit voter fraud in New Hampshire, and would any new safeguard be effective without violating the rights of the citizens?

During last Tuesday’s presidential primary, a conservative activist group called Project Veritas conducted one of its famous sting operations. Going solely by the heavily edited video the group released on Wednesday, activists appeared to ask Manchester and Nashua poll workers if their rolls contained the names of particular voters — voters who had died recently. The video shows poll workers finding the names on the voter rolls and then handing ballots to the activists.

The next part is very important. The activists then left the ballots on the table and walked away. As far as the video shows, they never claimed to be the deceased voters, nor did they vote.

What to make of this? Based on what has been published about the stunt so far, poll workers are not denying that they gave ballots to the activists on the assumption that their identities were the same as the names they gave. For advocates of a law requiring voters to show a photo ID to get a ballot, this is game, set and match.

It is not only possible, but incredibly easy, to vote illegally in New Hampshire simply by giving a false name. (It happened in 2004, when a 17-year-old voted in the Republican presidential primary under his father’s name.) It does not have to be the name of a recently deceased voter. Any name on the rolls would do.

The need for a voter ID requirement is obvious. That addition to the voting laws would make it significantly more difficult to obtain a ballot under false pretenses. But the New Hampshire Democratic Party claims to conclude otherwise. After asserting last year that voter fraud does not happen (despite the 2004 incident), New Hampshire Democrats have spent the last several days shouting that the activists who did not claim to be registered voters and who did not vote somehow committed voter fraud.

The absurdity of the assertions is self-evident: We don’t need a voter ID law because voter fraud doesn’t happen. Oh, and last week’s case of voter fraud that we discovered only because the people recorded themselves obtaining ballots under false names and publicly released the video is also evidence that we don’t need a voter ID law.

They even stooped so low as to accuse Republicans who cited the video as evidence that we need a voter ID law of applauding voter fraud. To believe the Democrats, you would have to believe that Republicans who want a voter ID law are in favor of voter fraud while Democrats who oppose a voter ID law are staunchly against it.

The Democrats have spent five days attacking the messengers instead of answering the questions: Is voter fraud easy to commit in New Hampshire, and if so what is the simplest, most effective remedy that allows all legal voters to vote? They change the subject instead of answering because the obvious answers are: Yes, and by requiring that citizens show a picture ID to vote — with an exception for people who don’t have an ID with them but who produce one shortly after voting.

Thirty-one states require that voters show an ID before obtaining a ballot. It is hardly a radical idea. Let’s stop entertaining the outlandish claims of Voter ID opponents and pass it before the next election.