Rep. Simon Offers 'Common Ground on Voter Verification'

[The following news release comes from Rep. Steve Simon (DFL-District 44A)]

 

Dear Friends,

Election reform should ideally be a joint effort of both major political parties. But lately, election legislation has become a proving ground for partisan political interests—as with the current constitutional amendment proposal to impose a government- issued photo ID requirement for voting. Fortunately, there’s common ground. Working with legislators from both parties, as well as with our Secretary of State, I’ve been trying to find a compromise that will verify voters’ identities without fencing out law-abiding citizens.

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The Current Deadlock

I understand why the idea of “photo ID” for voting polls well. But the details matter. And there a lot of technical details. Here are some problems with the proposed constitutional amendment:

• This is a big change, which addresses a tiny problem. (According to one study, in 2008 only 38 people voted illegally out of a state of five million people—and photo ID would not have prevented the misconduct.)
• We should only amend our constitution when absolutely necessary. The words we put into our constitution could be there for generations— out of the reach of future legislatures or governors who might want to correct mistakes or make improvements. (Only one other state— Mississippi—has put photo ID language in its constitution.)
• The proposed constitutional amendment could eliminate our popular same-day registration system, which is largely responsible for our best-in the-nation voter turnout.
• The proposed constitutional amendment would allow only “government-issued” photo IDs, even though many states with ID requirements allow other forms—such as IDs from colleges and universities, or utility bills. (At least 83,000 currently registered voters in Minnesota have no state ID of any kind.)

A Possible Compromise

Here’s a possible win/win proposal that has bipartisan support:

• Provide low-cost electronic “poll books” for every polling place—each containing the photographs from voters’ driver’s licenses or state ID cards, plus records of any disqualifying felony convictions.
• Election judges would view a poll book photo, among other data, to determine the identity of a voter.
• A voter whose ID is lost, stolen, or outdated (as in the case of many seniors who no longer have current driver’s licenses) could still vote— because the voter’s photo would already be in the poll book at the polling place.

If a person whose photo is not in the poll book seeks to vote, election judges could take a digital photo of the person at the polling place.