today at the capitol

04/26/2006

Pioneer Press
April 26, 2006

While Minnesota has never had a “butterfly ballot” controversy like the one that tossed the 2000 presidential election into uncertainty, there are nevertheless questions about the means that citizens use to vote and how their votes are counted. One of them concerns machines that allow voters to touch a screen to vote, with some opponents claiming that computer hackers have the means to alter the recorded results.

The House Civil Law and Elections Committee will address what kind of balloting can be done in Minnesota in a meeting at 12:30 p.m. today. A bill under consideration lays out a set of requirements for any electronic voting machines used in Minnesota, including the ability to produce a paper trail for the purposes of challenges and recounts. It also sets up a working group to investigate options for voting equipment.

Also today:

The April 15 escape of a sex offender from the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center has inspired the Senate Health and Human Services Budget Division Committee to call a 9 a.m. meeting to address safety and operational concerns at the center.

A “Dialogue on Africa,” sponsored by the Minnesota Council for Nonprofits, will feature a panel discussion on the needs of young African immigrants as they settle in the Twin Cities. It will run from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Model Cities Brownstone Room in St. Paul. Call 651-642-1904 for more information.

Bills that would alter eminent domain laws in Minnesota passed in both legislative chambers, but now the differences between the two bills need to be rectified in a conference committee that will meet at 3 p.m. at the State Office Building.

Talking about human rights in Morocco sent history professor Maati Monjib into exile in Senegal but hasn’t quieted him. The visiting Fulbright scholar will talk about the current state of that North African nation at the University of Minnesota’s McNamara Alumni Center from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Admission is $15; call 612-625-4421 for more information.