Soon voters may have to show their id when they go to the polls.

"We're in the computer age. And we have so much voter fraud going on and so yes, we need that," Natchez resident Maisie Mayberry said.

And Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann is at the forefront of this initiative. Hosemann visited Meridian last week to observe the special House District 82 election. He says while visiting precincts, several local elderly people came up to up to him and expressed how proud they were to show their ID.

"It reminded me again that Mississippians believe that your vote should only count as one. And that we ought to have the integrity of the voting system. And showing an ID is not going to disrupt anybody," Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said.

The issue has become a yearly debate for the state Legislature. The latest voter ID bill died in the Senate in March.

Proponents argue that requiring a picture identification to vote would help prevent voter fraud, while opponents say that requiring ID would possibly intimidate older black people who were subject to poll taxes and other Jim Crow laws decades ago.

"We hear also too many stories of people who have longed passed on, people who know longer live in certain areas and to avoid the chance of those votes being on the roll that may be manipulated by somebody else to me I think it would be important that we ID," Gulfport resident Robert Mulbus said.

But this measure would require voters to show a government issued photo ID before being allowed to vote. Hosemann says if you don't have some type of identification the state would issue you on for free. He's encouraging Mississippians to sign a petition to put the issue on the 2010 election ballot.

"So I'm real hopeful that our constitutional initiative that is out their now will pass and we will be able to all decide whether or not voter ID is a common sense voting tool," Hosemann said.

From now through October, he says residents can sign the petition. Forms are available on the secretary of state's website.

"I hope so, I hope it gets through," Mayberry said.