Any cop will tell you only a small percentage of drunk drivers are ever caught and prosecuted.

The same probably goes for thieves, burglars and other lesser criminals.

All we can do is hope that the same is not true of people who commit voter fraud. Island County officials have caught two in the last few years, but we can only wonder how many they are missing.

The first case made news region-wide because charging a person with voter fraud is so unusual. An Oak Harbor woman filled out an absentee ballot for her daughter and signed her daughter’s name to it. She had her daughter’s permission, because she was living away from home. Still, it was a crime and the woman pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor. She paid a fine in January 2007 and was place on probation for one year.

The second case came to light this week when Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks announced a Camano Island woman who was not a registered voter had filled out her son’s ballot and signed her son’s name to it, just so she could vote in the election. She had to do five days of community service in a food bank and pay court costs.

Both women went through several months of stress during their cases and no doubt had considerable legal fees to deal with, plus the black mark on their records and the embarrassment of being charged with a crime.

But they deserved their fate, and the prosecutor’s office did the right thing in pursuing charges. Voter fraud is a serious crime and the public must learn the consequences.

Still, the problem lies more with the modern use of absentee ballots than a couple of otherwise law-abiding women who gave in to temptation and filled out someone else’s ballot. For a couple of hundred years, that was impossible in this country because ballots were all secured in polling places, except for rare instances of illness or travel where absentee ballots were allowed. Now, millions of absentee ballots flood the mail system and sit around houses for anyone to fill out, while polling places stand empty in an ill-considered effort to save money.

If you believe that Island County law enforcement caught and punished the only two people who have committed voter fraud since all-mail elections were allowed, then you need a reality check. Most likely there’s a lot of voter fraud going on but, like those drunk drivers who are out there ever night, the vast majority are not getting caught.