A bipartisan bill to protect the integrity of Minnesota’s elections would create a new voter verification system without requiring photo identification cards or changing the state constitution. Republican lawmakers are weighing the compromise to address criticism of the proposed constitutional amendment that would allow voters to decide if Minnesotans should show a photo ID at the polls. Legislators also are uncertain about the makeup of the next Legislature, which would have to fill in the details should voters approve the amendment. The proposed legislative fix of state election law would incorporate “electronic poll books,” technology that Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has advocated as a less-expensive alternative to a state-issued voter ID card.
Ritchie, a Democrat, appeared recently before a Senate subcommittee to discuss the benefits of the system, which would allow election officials to look up existing drivers’ license photos or to take new photos of each voter up at the polling place. ”It doesn’t disrupt absentee voting, or voting by service personnel overseas,” he said. “It doesn’t disrupt our voter registration system, our same-day registration system. It doesn’t disenfranchise anybody.”
Republicans in the House and Senate passed a voter ID requirement last year, but Dayton vetoed it. State Sen. John Howe, R-Red Wing, a sponsor of last year’s bill, said he has been working with the governor and the secretary of state this session on an updated version. Howe said electronic poll books would help achieve the goal of proper voter identification. ”I can’t speak to whether this does anything on the constitutional amendment for photo ID,” Howe said. “But I can tell you that I personally, along with many of my colleagues, want to see things done as much as we can legislatively.”
Full Article: Voter ID compromise could avert amendment fight | Minnesota Public Radio News.
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