Last year, Minnesota's Republican party, fresh off an election victory which gave them control of both houses of the state legislature, convened the legislature with a promise of "a laser focus on jobs". Of course, that was an untruth. The focus immediately was a far-right agenda that includes anti-abortion laws, slapping unions, unfairly redistricting, and favoring the 1%. In my humble opinion, the worst of their agenda is the ALEC-approved attack on free and fair elections. More after the break!
There is a special hatred in Minnesota for free and fair elections, because of the recount victory of Al Franken over turncoat conservative Norm Coleman. That was followed by a narrow victory by Mark Dayton to win the governor's chair for the first time in over two decades. The right wing screamed "fraud" without a shred of evidence. Urban myths of "ballots in the back of cars" and carloads of aliens voting etc. have circulated and have been taken at face value by right wing zealots.
Natually, as soon as they took control of the legislature, a Photo-ID bill was passed and sent to the governor. Dayton vetoed the bill, reaching out to say that he was amenable to election reform if it were bi-partisan. Of course, the Republicans said "hah". They reacted to Dayton's veto with the usual rhetoric and decided they would amend the constitution rather than try to work with the governor. Fortunately, the 2011 session ended before an amendment to the state constitution could be formulated and passed.
On to the current legislative session. Again the order of business was to pass ALEC-agenda (and NRA) laws. The new, improved Photo-ID constitutional amendment has been approved by several committees and is steaming towards passage and placement on the general election ballot. Republicans have allowed for debate and then pass on the amendment on a party line vote. The Senate Finance Committee took its turn rubber stamping the bill this week. The amendment's author--freshman Scott Newman--responded to all questions about particulars of this proposed amendment by saying that the 2013 legislature would have to decide how to enact the amendment. Questions, oh so many questions! What about absentee voters? What about people with no photo ID? What about people who forgot their ID? Provisional ballots? Cost? No answers from Sen. Newman.
So what the Republicans are trying to foist upon the state is a provision with absolutely no details about enactment. As one commenter said, it's like giving someone a check and telling them to fill it out". I hope this is the doom for this "legislation" which from the beginning has been a solution looking for a problem. Most Democrats have said all along that the actual goal is suppression of the vote and I think that is exactly right. I would hope all non-RW Republicans could now get behind Democrats who have opposed this and defeat the measure in the fall, because the proposed amendment will certainly pass the state legislatures. With no firm cost estimate, no process proposed to enfranchise those who would be disenfranchised, and no real reason to mess with a system that works, this amendment should go down.
Let me comment a little further about the proposal. How can any politician put forward something like this and want to attach it to a state constitution? To me, it is the epitome of cynicism to propose something that sounds good (voter integrity thru ID) but then not provide any details because any detail will show how difficult it will be for some to vote and how much money it will cost to implement. The Republicans encourage the "voter fraud" nonsense, but come up with zero cases that would be prevented by their proposal as they've presented it.