It’s not that often that we get to peek into the future with a reasonable degree of probability to see what might happen.
We have House minority leader, Rep. Kurt Daudt (R), to thank for this opportunity when it comes to elections in Minnesota. Of course, this involves some assumptions, like Daudt’s party gaining control of the legislature and governor’s office this fall. However, that possibility is a realistic one, given the redistricting results.
On Jan. 31 Daudt dropped his Minnesota Elections Integrity Act into the hopper at the Capitol in St. Paul (H.F. 2732). No matter that the 2020 election was conducted successfully with complete integrity. Yet the bill proposes dramatic changes in how we conduct our elections. On Feb. 3 the bill gained an additional 29 co-authors, all of Daudt’s political party. We can safely conclude that this is not a bipartisan bill, but a matter of great interest to one party.
What might these legislators have in mind for Minnesota elections? Two of these ideas passed the Minnesota Senate in 2021. Voter I.D. and provisional balloting. No evidence of fraud in voting in Minnesota was presented to justify their passage. Under Daudt’s bill, an applicant for a voter I.D. card must provide proof of citizenship, a Social Security number, a current address, a description of the applicant and a photograph. Documentation of identity and residence is required. A duplicate card must be obtained if the holder changes his or her address. Of course, the voters of this state voted down Voter ID in 2012 in the form of a constitutional amendment. Not everyone got the message, apparently.
Minnesota’s successful and nationally recognized same day voter registration would be canceled. Instead, an unregistered voter may cast a provisional ballot which is not counted unless the voter appears at the county auditor or municipal clerk during the week following the election and process and proves his, her or their eligibility to vote. Should the inability to register at the polls not discourage a potential voter, having to show up again within the next week should do the trick. This is an unnecessary hurdle, sure to limit voting. Minnesota was exempted from a federal law requiring provisional ballots because same day registration was deemed to be a superior process. By the way, these unnecessary changes come at a cost to taxpayers.
[image_caption]George A. Beck[/image_caption]
These proposals fit comfortably in the nationwide undemocratic effort to suppress voting in our country. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, as of January, legislators in at least 27 states have introduced, pre-filed or carried more than 250 bills with restrictive voting provisions. Many of these bills also curtail access to mail voting and impose new or stricter voting requirements for in person voting or registration. Minnesota has joined this effort to limit voting, the crown jewel of our democracy.
You may think that this is merely the effort of the House minority that has little chance of passage. That’s likely true this year. But, the margins in the House and Senate are narrow and many think they will change this fall. A recent poll in the governor’s race found DFL Gov. Tim Walz with 43 percent and GOP challenger Scott Jensen with 40 percent. This fall’s election will have a major impact on whether Minnesota continues to be a state with a full democracy, or assumes a lesser status.
George A. Beck is a retired administrative law judge and former chair of the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board.
75% of Americans polled said they favored voter ID. You should have to ask for an absentee ballot, prove you are a resident of the state, receive the ballot and then cast your vote. Sending out ballots by the 10’s of thousands, without request, is asking for trouble. It is a right to vote but also a responsibility for the voter. Proving you are a resident of the state and having an ID is a small responsibility that the voter should be happy to perform for the right to vote.
“75% of Americans polled said they favored voter ID.” What’s your source, Joe? How many were polled, by whom, where and when? How is it that a majority of Minnesotans voted down voter ID just a few years ago?
Why should anyone have to jump through the hoops you propose when there’s no voter fraud to begin with? You’re proposing solutions to a problem that doesn’t exist.
Ray, NPR, PBS Marist poll, June of 21. 78% of white folks are in favor of voter ID only to be topped by 81% of black folks wanting voter ID. The old worn out line by liberals claiming voter ID’s are racist does not hold water in 2022. You need an ID for everything today, why not for voting? Voting is a responsibility that requires some effort on the voters part… Ridiculous to think otherwise…
You don’t need an I.D. to board a plane, or to open a bank account, or walk down the street, and even though the former pres suggested people need an I.D. to purchase groceries, you don’t for that either.
Kurt,
I’m against voter ID too, but please don’t make inaccurate statements. Yes you do need ID to board a plane. It’s checked at security and for international flights you’ll have to show ID at check-in, security and depending on the country you may need to show it a third time at the gate. As to a bank account, every time I’ve opened an account I’ve been asked for ID.
Colin,
See below.
Kurt, evidently you don’t travel, you need an ID to get on the plane… Period! You need an ID to open a bank account… Period! Not sure where you’re living but not in the real world!
Do you think in the 20 years since we started the fiasco of enhanced airport security nobody has ever lost their wallet or purse before a flight and shown up at the airport wondering if they can get on that plane. I’ve done that twice since 9/11. Sure, they don’t make it very fun, what with all the probing, but I flew, and so would you if you lost your I.D. before a flight. Period.
There is no requirement to open a bank account with an I.D., that’s a federal statute. You probably need one to take money out, but not to open it. At least according to t. U.S.Dept.of the Treasury, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Period
You also don’t need an I.D. to buy a gun at a gun show or flea market either- how about that.
Also you most definitely need an ID to withdraw your money from the bank. Please try to go to the bank without any ID and get money out of an account.
Dear Joe, Actually you don’t need a photo ID to get on a plane. I know this because on our way to the airport this past summer my 18 year old daughter informed me she forgot hers with no time to return home to get it. We had to go through additional steps but she got on the plane and on the return flight. The additional steps maybe took 10 minutes. And as for withdrawing money from my bank. I do it all the time with my bank card and PIN. I have do not get asked to provide a photo ID as long as I have my bank card and PIN.
Absolutely no guarantee that you will be allowed to get on a plane without ID. I’m sure there are certain situations where you can pass an advanced security screening but good luck…. Also try to be a repeat air traveler without ID. As far as getting money from a bank ATM with credit card and PIN, you can do it at any ATM. Go to the teller and get money from an account without ID… It ain’t happening!
The response doesn’t answer my question, Joe. The rationale for all the hoops is “election integrity,” but there’s no credible evidence that “election integrity” is lacking anywhere. Sixty lawsuits were thrown out of court after the November election because no evidence of voter fraud was presented. That’s still the case. A photo ID is being offered as a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist, but is being used, and apparently effectively in some Republican-controlled states already, to eliminate potential voters, mostly people who might lean Democratic.
Since they’re a minority of the population, people who like to call themselves “conservative” often can’t win an election honestly, and their chosen political party has no rational policy platform for voters to identify with. So, since facts and logic don’t support their side, the alternative is ideology, and the fallback position is to make it more difficult for people on the other side to vote.
71% also say that voting (including early voting) should be made EASIER. And, in any case, supporting a photo ID doesn’t mean that they support the Republican solutions to such a requirement, which are intended to REDUCE access, not make it EASIER (which is what the public wants). I would support photo ID if the whole process for getting one was free and readily accessible to anyone of any walk of life. Everyone should be able to get a photo ID without risking losing a job by taking time off work, without having to pay for government documents that prove who they are, without requiring a working vehicle to get to an official photo ID provider. Any government issued photo ID should be fine, including IDs from public schools (both high school and college). Photo IDs need not be current to be valid for identification. The only reason you should have to renew an ID is to ensure you can still drive or if your appearance has changed significantly. No need to impose unneeded red tape on ensuring that an ID is sufficient for voting.
Tell me, are you on board with any of the above? Or are you just posturing?
That is why any voter ID without Rachel’s provisions is voter suppression.
“You need an ID for everything today, why not for voting?”
So, can you answer your own question? Why exactly is an ID needed for voting when there has been no problem before without IDs?
Should we have IDs to buy groceries? To walk on public sidewalks? To have dental work?
It obviously doesn’t logically follow that because IDs are required for some things that therefore they should be required for anything else one might think of. You could just as easily reverse that suggest and suggest that because we don’t have IDs for most things that we shouldn’t for anything else, or voting.
If IDs actually fix some problem, then what is it?
The resort to public polling suggests that you have no valid reason for supporting voter IDs and that you’re merely repeating the bad faith Republican line, whose motivation is self-evident.
Minnesota’s election laws already require proof of eligibility and residence. M.S. 201.061.
You may disagree with some of the kinds of proof that are permitted but it is false to say a person can vote in this state without satisfying the requirements set by our legislature to establish the identity ,eligibility, and residency of a voter. These include a variety of approved documents and multiple certifications of eligibility. Falsifying these certifications is purjury, which is a felony.
Minnesota’s election laws do not permit sending an absentee ballot to a voter who has not applied for one. m.s. 203b.06 subd 3, art. b, sec 1.
It is pure fantasy to claim any unsolicited ballots are mailed to voters in Minnesota, let alone 10s of thousands.
Mr. Daudt is not at all interested in election integrity. There’s ample proof, over many decades, that Minnesota elections are run honestly and fairly. If election integrity were his goal, he would produce evidence – and for a statewide change of this magnitude, we’d expect it to be substantial evidence in both quantity and quality – that voter fraud was rampant, that election procedures were corrupt, and/or that significant numbers of votes were either being counted incorrectly, or not counted at all. Moreover, he’d be able to prove, by numerous examples, that, as a result of these egregious election process flaws, elections in Minnesota were being unfairly skewed to favor a particular political party. That he and the bill’s supporters have provided no evidence – zero, nada – that any of this has taken place in prior elections, nor have he and the bill’s supporters provided evidence that such election tinkering is likely to take place in November, demonstrates unequivocally that Mr. Daudt and his fellow Republicans are not only not interested in election integrity, they’re not interested in protecting or preserving democracy itself. They’re interested in being able to wield autocratic power to inflict their particular social, economic and political agenda upon the majority of the state’s voters – who are not, I might add, Republicans.
“Heads I win, tails you lose” is not just antidemocratic and anti-American (a curious position to take for individuals and a political party that specialize in waving the flag at every opportunity), it smacks of the dictatorial, much like the speeches of the disgraced former president – a false deity currently being slavishly worshipped by so many Republicans across the country. If Daudt thought this idea up himself, it should disqualify him from public office in perpetuity. If it’s something that came from ALEC, or a bizarre suggestion from the Federalist Society, it’s a fine public example of why those organizations deserve neither credibility nor respect. And if Mr. Daudt really believes this draconian step is genuinely necessary, he should provide the public with substantial proof that the necessity is genuine. All we have at the moment is an expression of vaguely-worded prejudices against people and policies he doesn’t like.
Yeah, why do these folks hate the right to vote so much? Guess they like that Putin style autocratic rule! Once you are registered what is the big deal? Fraud is basically zip unless you are a republican and then it is rampant.
Yahoo News: “A majority of Democrats and non-white voters support requiring voters to present photo identification in order to cast a ballot, according to a Monmouth University Polling Institute survey released Monday (6/21/2021).”
“The survey asked respondents whether “in general” they “support or oppose requiring voters to show a photo ID in order to vote.” Among respondents, 62 percent of Democrats said they support requiring photo ID, while the number rose to 87 percent among Independents and 91 percent among Republicans.”
“Additionally, 84 percent of non-white respondents said they supported requiring photo ID, along with 77 percent of white respondents. ”
So, it seems to me that those in favor of “democracy,” i.e., letting the people decide, then all legislators should be on board with this republican-sponsored legislation.
Poll results are only valid if they support your cause.
Hey, hurrah and yippee! Let’s move forward with legislating by random polling. We can save time and money with all these elections and debate among lawmakers.
And we can start with immediately enacting the three changes overwhelmingly approved (in polls) to current gun laws!
1. Background checks for ALL gun purchases (supported by 96%)
2. 30 day waiting period for ALL gun purchases (75% approval)
3. All privately owned guns get registered with police (70% approval)
Taking these steps would actually help with a REAL societal problem, as opposed to the voting restriction ideas of the Republicans – that are a solution to no problem and will actually CAUSE issues by reducing the number of voters. Too bad those conservative folks can’t seem to put themselves in the shoes of all their constituents, and realize that there are many among us without the access or resources that those seeking to reduce voter participation take for granted.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/220637/americans-widely-support-tighter-regulations-gun-sales.aspx
But, but, but, those would inhibit the constitutional right to bear arms!
Whereas Daudt and Team Conservative’s proposals would only inhibit the constitutional right to vote! …oh, wait a minute…
The more important question is what qualifies as a valid photo ID and what has to be done to get one. Sure, a generic question that does not define what photo ID is valid is easy to agree with, sounds innocuous even. But, when the acceptable photo IDs are described it becomes clearer that election integrity is not the goal.
Republicans have manufactured a crises where none existed. There are not millions, or hundreds of thousands, or tens of thousands, or thousands, or hundreds, or even fifty or less votes that have been cast that are fraudulent. Setting aside the fact that Republicans generally only see fraudulent votes in states Trump lost. Setting aside the fact that Republicans won down ticket races. Setting aside the fact that Republicans cannot possibly fathom that Trump was a lousy president who suffered a historic defeat at the polls.
There is so much BS around the claim that these “reforms” are needed to protect election integrity. Where was the need for “reforms” when Republicans won? I can only hope that all of the “reforms” enacted in red states come back to bite Republicans in the ass at some point in the future.
Given that the GOP voting bloc is aging rapidly, and with so many in rural areas, their democracy and voting supression efforts will make it harder for those wishing to vote Republican, too.
If RCV was also in this bill, I might be impressed with this Republican sham of a voting bill. Republicans are doing their best, across the country, to bleach voters and repress the rest. If as much legal duress were put on those who would impede thousands of legal voters as this bill wants to apply to a hypothetical handful of illegal voters it might almost be credible.
How does validating who you say you are, impede a single legal voter?
The devil is in the details,
For just one example, let’s look at the provisional ballots. So, I have a week to get to an office to provide whatever it is I need to provide. What are the hours of that office? 8 to 4:30 M – F? Hey man, I work for a living. I got to pick up kids at school, or get them to practice. Where is that office? Is there only one in the county? What if I live 40 minutes west of the county seat, and I work 20 minutes east of the county seat?
Are you starting to see why this is a thinly disguised attempt to suppress the vote of some people? And I’m barely scratching the surface. Now let’s look a the ID itself.
Does it have to be a driver license or state issued ID? Or do I need a special voter ID. Let’s see, I vote once or twice a year, including off years, as I vote in the municipal elections too. Get up, make lunch for the kids, get everyone out the door to school/work. Oh dang, that stupid voter ID card, I left that at home.
Wait! I can use a gun holders permit. Of course, I can’t use a state university ID, funny how that works.
Did you know lower income voters are more likely to move more often? And every time I move, I have to jump through these hoops again.
Double voting is routinely caught (when caught it’s usually done by older Repubs, as I recall).
So please give us some cites to all the “tens of thousands” of activist students who have been caught doing this every election. Or is it just more “conservative” paranoia that they are sure is reality?
These four (so far) do.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/another-resident-villages-florida-accused-213700840.html
Your claim about tens of thousand of college students voting more than once – got any factual backing for that lie? Didn’t think so.
Seriously? Try reading about it a little. The problem is in the language and specifics. I bet YOU have a nice life and lots of current ID’s. Probably a nice home and maybe you’ve lived there a while.
Do we really have to tell you that there are MANY in our state and country who are not as fortunate as you?
Are you truly this naive and uninformed? Or are you just trying to echo your favorite FOX “not news@ personality?
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Information is anathema….
Because it’s very easy to impede the “validating who you say you are” for whichever group one is willing to suppress, but you already know that. The simple fact is that conservatives have malicious intent, they seek to consolidate power, and they don’t care who is damaged or disenfranchised to do so. Nothing you conservatives say can be taken in any measure of good faith, because your only purpose is to damage mine, and other liberals and non-conservatives’ lives, to better your own.
The downstream effects are a feature, not a bug.
Texas is in the process RIGHT NOW of throwing out thousands of absentee ballots, based ion their new voting law that requires certain numbers, witness requirements and various rules that have made as many as half the ballots in a single county illegal.
The problems Texas officials say, can be fixed by reporting them.
Unfortunately, there isn’t enough time left before the election to “fix” them all.
Google it. Every paper in the state has the news.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/15/texas-county-rejects-half-of-mail-in-ballot-applications-amid-new-voter-restrictions
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/13/texas-voting-mail-rejections/
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/10/texas-mail-voting-rejections/
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/15/1080739353/high-numbers-of-mail-ballots-are-being-rejected-in-texas-after-a-new-state-law
Heckuva law that works as designed. ALEC and Trump = CORRUPTION & THEFT
The state should not have the right or power to discard ballots.
–Hiram
Amen, and we’re watching it happen all over the country.
Yeah, Republicans and conservatives have had a certain hostility towards democracy for decades. Long story short at the end of the day it traces back to dictatorial impulses (like Nixon and Trump) and a fundamental conservative distrust of human intellect and morality.
There’s also a considerable level of dishonesty and ignorance. You will see the claim at some point for instance the US isn’t a “democracy” it’s a “republic”, this always betrays an ironic level of ignorance emerging from the guys who claim to be the Constitutional experts in the room. And the voter ID laws are just flat out attempts to disenfranchise anyone who might not vote for Republicans.
Thanks to other for pointing out the obtuse nature of using opinion polls as some kind of argument. I would just add a reminder that the only poll that matters is the vote, and we voted ID’s down. And I would add that if we’re using polls to make decisions now the fact that a majority of Americans think Trump lost the election it’s time to stop claiming otherwise eh?
It’s crystal clear that the “conservative” movement and its wholly owned Repub party want to enact voting laws that reduce turnout and manage the state electorates into ones that they think will aid their candidates and ham Dem candidates. Daudt and his MN Repubs are simply playing their part in the Repubs’ nationwide vote suppression strategy.
They aren’t even trying to hide this fact, nor is their base of voters. It’s still “democracy” of a sort, Managed Democracy.
As Putin has gambled, the American public is too deeply divided to possibly oppose his illegal war in Ukraine. We now as a people cannot agree that we want to encourage voting in America. As Lincoln said, “a house divided cannot stand”…
The Black Lives Matter activist Ms. Moses pleaded guilty to “evidence tampering” and “escape” in a 2015 matter in Tennessee. She was sentenced to 7 years probation.
Last November after trying to register to vote, she was convicted to illegally trying to register and sentenced to 6 years and a day. (An official even signed her registration materials, but later claimed she had “deceived” him.)
[AP story]
“Voter registration fraud is not a crime someone commits out of malice, and registering to vote should not be difficult, he said.
“In many cases around the country where there’s issues related to alleged voter registration fraud, almost every single case arises from legitimate confusion about difficult-to-understand laws,” said Becker, executive director and founder of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research. “How a sentence of six years might fit the crime here, I have to admit, is baffling to me.”
https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-memphis-tennessee-voting-voter-registration-7c48535b436c0d77ba0b4afbe0069668
After the charge of illegal trying to register, she was banned from voting for life.
YESTERDAY, a judge ordered a new trial for her based on evidence not presented in her earlier conviction.
Oh. Pamela Moses is a 44 year old Black woman.
If the state thinks a vote is invalid, it’s up to the state to prove it. It shouldn’t be up to me to prove I am a citizen or that I have the right to exercise my rights.
It’s always funny when voter fraud advocates point to cases of people getting caught committing voter fraud… as proof that people commit voter fraud without getting caught all the time. Meanwhile every serious attempt to find any significant degree of fraud has failed to do so and revealed an extremely reliable system.