Charles Hallman

Representatives from various interest groups — Blacks, Latinos, farmers, elected officials, union, LGBT, immigration reform advocates, teachers, persons with disabilities, faith-based organizations, seniors and business — and the public testified before an 18-person Democratic National Committee (DNC) Platform Drafting Committee July 27-29 in downtown Minneapolis.

Every four years the party adopts a new platform made up of issues or “planks,” which all local, state and national candidates will use in their campaigns. Twenty-six speakers testified during the six-hour hearings on July 27 at the Marquette Hotel.

A 2011 Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law report states that voting laws changes will “exclude large swaths of the electorate.” The report added that new restrictions “fall most heavily on young, minority and low-income voters, as well as on voters with disabilities…[making] it significantly harder for more than five million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012.”

The Minneapolis Foundation raised nearly two million dollars in 2011 to support the North Minneapolis tornado recovery effort.