On Oct. 25, 2012, former Independence Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner, representing Our Vote Our Future, laid out the case against voter restriction, enumerating the considerable costs, complications and consequences at stake for Minnesotans around the state should the amendment pass on November 6, 2012.
“We ought to do everything we can to make sure our elections are secure and that they’re inclusive.
“It’s not a simple issue. What you see on the amendment isn’t the law.
Should we be forced to speculate on our most fundamental basic constitutional right whether or not we’re gonna be able to vote?
“We don’t know what’s to come. What we do know that it’s likely to cost up to $150 million dollars, money that will go back to the local governments, local property taxpayers who will have to pay that cost.
“It does add complications. It does add a second class of voter. Those provisional ballots are new. It does put them in a second-class seat. And it has unintended consequences.”
In questioning Protect My Vote’s Dan McGrath, moderator Tom Hauser underscored that only part of the amendment, a single line, is on the ballot itself. If it passes, the amendment would leave many things up to the legislature and the Governor to figure out and place into law.
Horner warned that if the amendment were to pass, election judges would have “absolute discretion” to say whether a photo ID looks like the person presenting their ID. And if rejected by the election judge, Horner elaborated on the problems these voters could face as provisional voters using McGrath as a hypothetical:
“Imagine if Dan lives in Ely, Minnesota. He’s going to have to go back to Ely. Get a new photo ID. Drive 120 miles to Duluth, the county seat, just to make sure that he can present his photo ID to make sure his provisional ballot counts. That’s the kind of consequences we’re opening the door to. And it may be that 43 states have a system that isn’t like Minnesota but it’s only because Minnesota has a system that works, that is good, that has high voter turnout.”
At the conclusion of the debate, Horner encouraged voters to send the amendment back to the legislature to be fixed. “What we really ought to do is go back to the legislature, and say, you do it right, you do it in a bi-partisan way. Let’s do a do-over and make sure all issues are considered.”
Please watch it here: http://kstp.com/news/stories/s2812894.shtml