A new push to open up voter signup

02/26/2007

Among the secretary of state's proposals up for debate is automatically registering anyone eligible to vote who has a state ID.

By Dane Smith,
Star Tribune
Last update: February 25, 2007


Anyone eligible to vote who has a driver's license or a state ID card would be automatically registered under a controversial proposal emerging at the Capitol that would give Minnesota the most expansive voter registration law in the nation.

Granting automatic voting status to drivers, a step that no other state has taken, would put on the voting rolls as many as 500,000 people who are not registered now.

The measure, proposed by newly elected Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, will start moving this week through a Legislature controlled by DFLers, who have long advocated making it easier for Minnesotans to vote.

The state already leads the nation in voter turnout, and Ritchie, a DFLer who defeated two-term Republican Mary Kiffmeyer last fall, said he wants to "continue to be Number 1 in elections."

But Republicans are expressing alarm about Ritchie's proposal.

GOP leaders, focused on preventing election fraud, had been pushing for photo ID requirements and other security precautions for voting before they lost their House majority.

"We already have probably the most liberal voting laws in the nation and the highest turnout and no problems with being too restrictive," said state Republican Party chairman Ron Carey. "Our focus should be on education and security and integrity. Quality, not quantity, should be the goal."

DFLers have derided the GOP's emphasis as an attempt to suppress voter turnout.

In a sign of the intensifying fight over the issue, Rep. Laura Brod, R-New Prague, an assistant minority leader and the lead member of the House committee dealing with elections, has written letters to state newspapers warning that Ritchie's idea "would likely make it easier for non-Minnesotans to vote."

Savings and safeguards

Ritchie brushed aside those criticisms, saying his proposal would streamline election records and help county election officials save money. Making sure everyone eligible to vote does so tops his agenda, he said.

"It is absolutely true that I believe every eligible citizen should have no barriers at all in their way," Ritchie said. "The argument that some citizens are not worthy enough or not smart enough is as un-American as I can imagine."

Minnesota's current system, which allows registration at the polls on Election Day, costs counties millions of dollars that they could save with a more universal form of pre-registration.

Ritchie said many safeguards would be in place to block voting by noncitizens and nonresidents, felons still in the corrections system, minors and others not allowed to vote. For example, he noted that because of changes pushed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, driver's licenses already denote noncitizen status.

Ritchie also scoffed at critics who suggest that his proposal would greatly benefit DFLers at the voting booth. "There's nothing about having a driver's license that's Democratic or Republican," he said.

Ritchie also is pushing for automatic re-registration for voters who change addresses, by linking to U.S. Postal Service databases. In all, about a half-dozen proposals that would broaden access to voting are coming before the Legislature.

In the 2004 presidential election, Minnesota led the nation with a turnout of 77.7 percent. In the 2006 midterm election, turnout was 59.5 percent, still tops in the country. Some 292,000 voters, 13 percent of the total, registered on Election Day.

Colored by politics

There's a political and historical background for the budding conflict between Ritchie and Republicans.

Republicans, led by conservative blogger Michael Brodkorb, are beginning to make the case that Ritchie, a lifelong activist for environmental and other liberal causes, is too partisan and too ideological to provide fair oversight of the state's election process.

This line of attack echoes the barrage of criticism directed over the last eight years by DFLers at Kiffmeyer, who was accused of being too conservative and Republican to serve as the top election official.

Noting that Ritchie recently spoke at an event sponsored by People For the American Way, a liberal national interest group founded by Hollywood producer Norman Lear, Brodkorb said Ritchie "is really tied in to that network."Democrats would scream bloody murder if Kiffmeyer went to such rabidly partisan groups," Brodkorb said.

Ritchie said partisan activity is "a question I struggle with," but added that he speaks to any group that asks, including Rotary Clubs, businesses and military audiences. Ritchie said one of his top priorities is making it easier for service members and troops overseas to vote.

"In every speech I give, I talk about healing the partisan divisions and bridging the gaps between us," Ritchie said. "I'm trying to make sure the system is working for everybody."