Voter ID bill clears committee

03/17/2006

Republican plan OK’d on party-line vote

BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press

Minnesota voters would be required to provide proof of citizenship and a photo ID before they could cast ballots under a Republican-sponsored bill that squeaked through a House committee Wednesday on a party-line vote.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Delano, said the legislation is needed to prevent voter fraud and ensure public confidence in elections.

“Important reforms are necessary to remove doubts about our elections,” Emmer told the Civil Law and Elections Committee.

Opponents argued the change is unnecessary because there’s very little evidence of voter fraud in Minnesota, and it would make it more difficult to vote, especially for many elderly, frail, poor or first-time voters or racial minorities.

“Any Minnesotans who care about our continuing as a high turnout state, a model of civic engagement and a state that encourages people to use their right to vote should be opposed to this bill,” said Marcia Avner, public policy director of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits.

The bill would require anyone registering to vote to show proof of U.S. citizenship by producing a passport, birth certificate or naturalization document. To prove one’s residence, it would require a voter to provide a “picture identification card,” such as a driver’s license or Minnesota identification card.

Those requirements shouldn’t pose a significant barrier to voting, Emmer said.

“You can’t get on a plane or cash a check without a photo ID. It would seem the right to vote should require the same.”
But Ruth Martin, deputy field director for People for the American Way, testified that 6 percent to 10 percent of voting-age Americans don’t have driver’s licenses, and a disproportionate number of them are poor, elderly or minorities.

The Rev. Randolph Staten, president of the Coalition of Black Churches, estimated that about half the people his Twin Cities organization contacts in voter registration drives would not have, or would not be carrying, the required documents.

“This turns back the clock on the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” he said, referring to the landmark federal legislation.

The costs of the required documents — $97 for a passport and $16 for a Minnesota birth certificate, for example — would amount to a poll tax and probably would be ruled unconstitutional, warned Teresa Nelson, legal counsel of the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

If the Republican-controlled House passes the bill, it likely would die in the Democratic-run Senate. Senate Elections Committee Chairman Chuck Wiger, DFL-North St. Paul, said the bill’s Senate sponsor, Republican Michele Bachmann of Stillwater, has not requested a hearing, and while he would grant such a request, he would oppose the bill.

“It would have a chilling impact on people, especially seniors, who don’t have driver’s licenses or other forms of state identification,” Wiger said. “In this election year, we should be doing all we can to encourage people to vote, not discourage them.”