LAWRENCE - Voter fraud. Nary a city election passes without the utterance of those two words.

Claims come to Lawrence of people being bused in to vote, of dead men managing to show up at the polls and of people walking in to vote in place of others.

There is scant evidence - and no prosecutions - to support those claims. But falling to the safe side, a proposal to require voters to show ID at the polls is once again before the City Council. And locally, at least, it has support.

"There needs to be some significant card," former City Councilor Marie Gosselin said. "It could be your driver's license. I think that's good enough."

Gosselin isn't on the council anymore, but candidates for the three at-large seats all endorsed the idea of requiring identification at the polls during a debate last year. Council President Patrick Blanchette also said he'll support the plan.

"I don't know why anyone would be against an ID at the polls," Blanchette said. "If people don't have an ID, we could certainly provide a voter ID card for them with a photo.

"I think it would eliminate a lot of accusations of voter fraud," he said.

An ID requirement would likely need to be instilled, first at the City Council and then in the state legislature, through a home rule petition. The proposal before the council does not specify what type of ID would be required and if it would need a photo, Gosselin said.

Voting rights advocates say an ID requirement at the polls would add undue impediments to a process that is supposed to be simple, streamlined and a basic American right.

"We think that no eligible citizen should have to pay to vote and, essentially, requiring people to have an ID requires them to have to pay the fees," said Chris Ott, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.

Ott said an ID requirement would be an "unnecessary barrier" to the exercising of a "fundamental right." What's more, there is little proof of poll site fraud, he said.

"What I have heard about other locations that have passed laws like this, the instance of people actually showing up and committing fraud is extremely rare," he said.

And there is little to no evidence of voter fraud in Lawrence.

"On election day, we hear people make complaints, but they don't materialize," said Brian McNiff, spokesman for the Massachusetts Secretary of State.

City Clerk William Maloney said that "in any election, there are allegations of voter fraud to some degree."

Maloney said his office takes fraud allegations "very, very seriously" and forwards them on to the state Attorney General's office for investigation and possible prosecution. A spokesman for the Attorney General's office said he did not know how many - if any - voter fraud prosecutions there have been statewide.

Gosselin admits she knows no firmly established examples of voter fraud, but said she has heard "legitimate situations."

"What I only know locally and what I hear, people do say that (there is fraud)," she said. "Is there verification? I haven't seen any."

Lawrence tried to pass a voter photo ID requirement in 2003. The measure, created then by Gosselin as well, was approved in the council but never made it to the Statehouse. Gosselin blames state Rep. William Lantigua, D-Lawrence, who "seemed not to help us. We felt as though he wanted it his way."

Lantigua also supported a voter ID requirement for Lawrence at the time. He did not return a call for comment on this story.

The proposal comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is slated to weigh in on how voter ID jives with the U.S. Constitution. Earlier this month the court heard a pair of cases challenging an Indiana law requiring government-issued photo identification at the polls. No decision has been released.

Gosselin, who lost her November race to Michael Fielding by 73 votes, put the proposal before the council before leaving her seat at the end of the year. Gosselin said the current council should work out the specifics. The proposal is currently before the council ordinance committee. Councilor Nick Kolofoles, who chairs that committee, said he expects to send it to the full council for consideration.

Gosselin is holding an informational meeting tonight at 7 in the community room at the McGovern transportation center to drum up support for the proposal.