Will Minnesota go from the state that was a leader in making it easy for all citizens to vote and led the nation in the highest percent of citizens voting to the state which places in its Constitution the highest barriers to voting?  Proponents of the Amendment to restrict voting in MN hope so, but we hope Minnesota's voters don't agree.

The MN legislature recently voted to place an Amendment to the MN Constitution which makes it more difficult for Minnesotans' vote to count on the election ballot in November.  Called the "Photo ID" Amendment because that's what is stated on the ballot item, the Amendment actually makes far more sweeping changes in MN's election system. Many organizations including the League of Women Voters, Citizens for Election Integrity, the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, Isaiah, Catholic Charities, and Lutheran Social Services oppose this amendment to the MN Constitution and are asking voters to vote "no."

The biggest barrier to having Minnesotans votes count would be provisional voting.  Minnesotans now have the right to register to vote on election day and to cast their votes and have them count.  Under the Amendment, Minnesotans could still register to vote, but their votes would not be cast and entered into the system.  Instead, they would have to fill out a provisional ballot which would not be immediately counted.  They would first have to be declared eligible to vote. This involves a series of seven checks by the MN Secretary of State and then sending a post card to their residential address and waiting to see if it is returned.  If they were not declared eligible by a designated time, their vote would not count.  In Indiana where a provisional balloting system was used for newly registered voters in the 2008 election, only 28% of the votes were counted.  Minnesota had over 542,247, 18% of the total voters, register to vote on election night in 2008.  One can easily see that there is a potential for hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans to be deprived of their right to vote under this provision of the amendment alone.

A second barrier to having one's vote count, that voters have a goverment issued photo ID requirement would mainly affect people who don't have a driver's license:  low income Minnesotans, students, young voters, the elderly who don't drive, and disabled people. Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie estimates that approximately 84,000 Minnesotans do not have any government issued photo ID, and another 131,000 do not have an ID with their current address.  Most states have exceptions to the government issued ID for the poor and disabled, but MN's Amendment to Restrict Voting allows no exceptions.

A third barrier to casting a vote that counts affects voters who mail in their ballots.  They would be required to provide verification of their identity which is equivalent to the photo ID required for citizens voting at their polling place.  This is not required by any other state, and it is not clear how this would work.  This barrier would effect 215,000 voters.

Minnesota religious leaders wrote in a letter they sent to legislators that people of faith view the referendum as an attack on democracy that reduces the number of people who can participate.

"Passage of the proposed referendum would primarily reduce voters of color, the elderly, students, poor and non-English-speaking voters. Effectively this gives more influence to a smaller number of wealthy, privileged and primarily White voters. . . 


Additionally, the proposed referendum would reduce the number of poor people who could vote, for it will be people of limited economic resource, limited time and limited mobility who will have most difficulty obtaining voter identification cards. By reducing the number of poor who vote, the proposed referendum seeks to increase the political power and influence of the wealthiest and most privileged classes of our society."

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization of large multi-national corporations and legislators, is behind voter restriction legislation nation wide.  ALEC meets secretly to draft legislation which the legislators then present to their state legislatures.  For example, the members of ALEC are fully aware that many people will encounter problems in acquiring a government issued photo ID and that laws and constitutional amendments requiring a photo ID will reduce the number of people who are likely to vote against ALEC's preferred candidates.  Likewise ALEC's promotion of provisional ballots for people who register at their polling place results in many of the votes never being cast because the process of verifying voters' eligibility takes too long.  For more on ALEC's influence on elections, see John Nichols' article in the Nation, "ALEC Exposed: Rigging Elections."