Posted on 09/27/2012 11:29:38 AM PDT by rhema
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was a vocal opponent of the Voter ID bill throughout the legislative session. But once the Legislature passed the Voter ID amendment and put it on the ballot, he had an obligation to cease his resistance to the measure.
As our chief elections official, Ritchie will be responsible for tallying the ballots on the Voter ID amendment this November. His continued advocacy against Voter ID undermines the credibility of his office.
Ritchie has gone beyond simply campaigning against Voter ID. He is now actively seeking to dupe voters into voting against Voter ID using false statistics he knows to be untrue. One example is his claim that 215,000 Minnesotans would be ineligible to vote because they lack the appropriate identification required by the Voter ID amendment. This is complete hogwash. His statistics jumble together voters who either don't have a Minnesota driver's license or state ID card with voters whose address on their ID doesn't match their voter registration.
The Voter ID amendment simply requires a government-issued identification for voting -- this could include a Minnesota driver's license, state ID, a passport, a military ID, a tribal ID or even an out-of-state driver's license. The amendment does not require an ID with the individual's current address; it is only used to verify identity. The Voter ID amendment is silent on residence verification, leaving that to existing statutes. A voter may verify identity with
photo ID, and if the address on the ID is not current, statutes allow verification of residence in the precinct with a utility bill, among other options. All of this means the actual number of individuals who would require a new identification card for voting would be a fraction of the number Ritchie claims. Ritchie's "estimate" of the number of people without identification is not the only bogus number being put out from his office. He has misrepresented the Voter ID amendment in other areas, including its cost and the impact on our elections.
Ritchie is not only denigrating the integrity of his office; he appears to be in violation of several state laws that prohibit officials from using public resources for campaigning, as well as knowingly presenting false information to the public.
If Ritchie had any honor, he would resign from his office. But that's not going to happen. There's too much at stake for him and his supporters. We can expect to hear more from Secretary Ritchie and his people as the election draws closer. We should bear in mind his repeated use of misinformation and unethical conduct and not take any of his nonsense seriously.
Ritchie's campaign against the Voter ID amendment creates a clear conflict of interest because he's the man who's responsible for overseeing the counting of votes.
Ritchie's behavior and abuse of his office is unacceptable and should be rejected by the people of Minnesota.
Jeff Davis is president of Minnesota Majority.
“If Ritchie had any honor, . . .”
Would someone ID for me ANY HONORABLE LIEberal?
Please?
So which republican state rep(s) or senator(s) is bringing charges?
I haven’t heard either of mine are trying.
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The MN GOP is really really broken. They won in 2010 purely based on turnout and they have done nothing with it except continue with more missteps.
Thanks for the ping.
Last I heard there was still overwhelming support for this amendment (~60%).
Have you (anyone?) heard anything different?
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