MN Braces For Voter Photo ID Lawsuits, Election Chaos

Before Minnesota’s proposed voter photo ID constitutional amendment appears on the ballot it will probably appear on a court docket.

“I will be sued by a lot of people” says Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. He expects lawsuits over the ballot question language which doesn’t mention the provisional balloting explicitly spelled out in the constitutional amendment and the end of same day registration which is implicit in the amendment language.

“Some people call this the chaos amendment,” says Ritchie. More than a 500,000 people used same day registration in Minnesota during the last Presidential election. Under voter photo ID most of those people trying to register the same day they vote will need to vote provisionally. Ritchie says that would force local election officials to process 540,000 provisional ballots and voter registration forms ” after a really, really long day.”

“That kind of chaos is the kind of thing that has pushed local election officials to come out very strong, so far, against this,” says Ritchie.

Photo ID 18th century, not 21st century technology. … Continue Reading

MN Governor, Secretary of State Reacts to Voter Photo ID Passage

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie speaks to the press shortly after the final passage of a proposed constitutional amendment that would require a photo ID to vote in Minnesota.

Governor Mark Dayton statement on the passage of voter photo ID:

“This is a partisan amendment based on a false premise that voter fraud is a significant problem in Minnesota. Our election system is the best in the nation. We have the highest voter turnout year after year and under intense, bipartisan scrutiny, the recent statewide recounts have highlighted how reliable the results are. Much of the strength of the system derives from over 150 years of bipartisan work and its federated nature – the 87 county auditors, hundreds of municipal clerks, and 30,000 volunteer election judges who administer Minnesota’s elections and ensure they are free and fair.

“Republicans in the legislature had two years to negotiate bipartisan reforms to election law, and it is disappointing that their failure to do so has led to an unnecessary constitutional amendment that would make it harder for law abiding citizens, including tens of thousands of seniors, service members, and students, to exercise their right to vote. I cannot support a constitutional amendment that is pushed through the legislative process by only one political party – and neither should Minnesotans if they see it on the ballot this fall.”

Read the Minnesota legislature twitter feed and watch the video at the same time.

Minnesota Majority Accuses Secretary of State Mark Ritchie of Deceiving the Public

Minnesota Majority, North Star Tea Party Patriots, We Want Voter ID and Minnesota Voter Alliance came together to respond to claims made by Secretary of State Mark Ritchie that the Voter Id Amendment will disenfranchise voters.

“Mark Ritchie paints apocolyptic scenarios for endless court battles over uncounted provisional ballots. But 44 other states use them, and none of these other states have the kind of problems Ritchie warns about,” said Minnesota Majority’s Dan McGrath.

Ritchie has offered electronic pollbooks-a solution to the current voter id. This was a response to a task force created last year to bolster election integrity. The creation of a provisional system has generated a tremendous amount of opposition from the people who administer the election because its a creation of a brand new system. Ritchie says there will be additional costs in creating this new system as well.

Voter ID Pushers Attack Sec. of State Mark Ritchie

A coalition of conservative groups that support a constitutional amendment in favor of a Voter Photo ID law in Minnesota held a press conference in the State Office Building this morning to attack Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie (DFL) for his opposition to the amendment. The group includes Minnesota Majority, Minnesota Voters Alliance, North Star Tea Party Patriots and Minnesota Freedom Council.

Progressives and Democrats claim there’s no need for such a law because they see little to no evidence of voter fraud committed in Minnesota. They also say it would disenfranchise certain groups — among them senior citizens, minorities, college students and active-duty service members — from voting.

Electronic Poll Books Already In Use In Minnesota

Voting could be faster and more accurate with electronic poll books says an election administrator who has been trying them out. The system Minnetonka City Clerk David Maeda uses is similar to the one Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has proposed for statewide use. Maeda has been using them in some Minnetonka precincts for several election cycles.

He says the poll books can speed up the process, which will reducing waiting in line on election day. It provides many cost saving benefits for the entire election process including posting absentee voters, verifying ID and in the post election processing tasks of the city and county.

Ritchie and DFL lawmakers are promoting the electronic poll books as a more accurate and less costly alternative to a Republican back constitutional amendment which requires people have a photo ID to vote. Electronic poll books also has a photo, but it’s the government’s responsibility to keep track of it, not the voter’s.

Watch as Maeda discusses the many advantages and describes how an electronic system would be implemented.

Ritchie: Visual Verification Of Voters Possible This Fall

After the 2008 election Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie spent months recounting the votes. An incident uncovered in that famous recount has generated an idea to change voter verification that potentially could gain bipartisan support.

In 2008, it was discovered that a newly released felon had voted for Republican Senator Norm Coleman in a race that he ended up losing by just a few hundred votes. The felon’s vote counted, but he shouldn’t have been allowed to vote until his voting rights were restored.

Ritchie explains how that discovery sparked a bipartisan panel that reviewed Minnesota’s election process to suggest the state use “visual voter verification.” Unlike the voter photo ID constitutional amendment being pushed by Republicans, visual voter verification would prevent felons from voting and puts the onus on the government to have someone’s picture, cutting down the chances of voters being disenfranchised for losing their photo ID or not having one in the first place.

GOP backed proposal involves provisional ballots which could be expensive, time consuming and disenfranchise many voters. … Continue Reading

Governor Dayton Backs Voter Photo ID Alternative

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Richie demonstrates a new electronic voter photo ID system that solves the stated objectives of the Republican proposed Photo Voter ID amendment at much lower cost and without the limitations and rigidity of the proposal.

This inexpensive system provides photo display of registered voters in the polling place either on a computer terminal or on a printed voter roster. New registrations can be captured from drivers license, student photo ID or by taking a picture.

In addition to providing a news level of security, it gives election officials new tools to speed up and control accuracy of post election processing.

The proposed amendment would disenfranchise at least 84,000 voters and as many as several hundred thousand. It also creates a new parallel election system of provisional ballots at an as yet unknown cost that could delay final results of an election for 7 – 10 days. It writes into the constitution a rigid requirement for 20th century technology – printed photos.

The Secretary of State proposal uses current technology to distribute and display photos and leaves the door open for implementation of evolving technology without amending the state constitution. This system was proposed by a bi-partisan commission, Governor Dayton noted that governors Carlson and Pawlenty had stated the need for bi-partisan changes to election law.

Raw video of the Governor Dayton’s news conference … Continue Reading

MN Counties, Cities Brace For Voter Photo ID Cost

The full cost of implementing voter photo ID isn’t known, but county and city officials say just the provisional ballot part of it it will push up property taxes.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie says the statewide system for the provisional ballots the constitutional amendment will require will cost at least $3 million.

Minnesota’s most experienced election official, Ramsey County Elections Manager Joe Mansky estimates the cost of provisional ballots to be $150,000 biannually for Ramsey County, which typically represents 10% of the cost across the state.

Smaller townships could face extra cost because they would need to create business hours for people to come back and prove their identity. Kent Sulum of the Minnesota Association of townships says that could be as much at $3.1 million a year statewide.

Alternative To Voter ID Demonstrated

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie demonstrates an alternative to voter photo ID called photo poll books or electronic poll books.

The advantages over voter photo ID: It would bring “visual verification” into the polling place without the risk of disenfranchising voters. It would cost about $7 million to $9 million to implement. Last year the estimate to implement a voter photo ID system was about $40 million.

Representative Keith Downey (R- Edina) questions why the Secretary of State is considering such an system before the state has a voter photo ID requirement.

Representative Steve Simon (DFL-St. Louis Park) explains that this is much like our current system, but adds a photo and keeps the burden of identifying people on the government, not the individual

Full video of the electronic poll books demonstration in the Minnesota House State Government Finance Committee. … Continue Reading

MN Voter Photo ID Alternative Has Some GOP Support

An alternative to voter photo ID that doesn’t require voters to have a photo ID is getting some Republican support according to Senator Terri Bonoff (DFL-Minnetonka).

She says the electronic poll book system Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has been demonstrating could be an alternative to a constitutional amendment.

As The UpTake first reported last week, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has proposed a system that is more secure and less costly than voter photo ID. The photo poll book makes the state responsible for having a picture of the voter to match to the face of the voter at the polls. New voters would have their pictures taken right at the polls. The Republican authored proposed constitutional amendment as currently written would not allow for this system.