OPINION | Stopping the Photo ID Amendment is as important as “Right to Work”

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Earlier this year, union members across Minnesota mobilized to successfully stop the proposed “Right to Work” constitutional amendment from passing the state legislature and moving on to the November ballot. Initial opinion polls indicated our prospects for success looked bleak. But we waged an aggressive effort to educate union members, the public, and legislators. And we prevailed. We stopped an unfair, unsafe, unnecessary constitutional amendment from reaching the ballot, defeating the corporate CEOs who wanted to see it pass. Continue Reading

Democratic vote hardest hit by Voter ID, opponents say ID requirement jeopardizes same-day voter registration

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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 ballot measure will not only affect voter ID laws but also the ability of Minnesotans to vote absentee…or for Minnesota to maintain the practice of Election Day registration,” explained Keesha Gaskins, senior council for the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program (pictured, below).Gaskins, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) recently discussed voter suppression legislation in a media conference call co-sponsored by New America Media and the Brennan Center for reporters from around the country, including the MSR.(Photo courtesy of Brennan Center for Justice)“It is very important to understand how these laws are going to affect voters,” said Gaskins.Before Indiana in 2006 became the first U.S. state to do so, no state required its voters to show a government-issued photo ID at the polls in order to vote. Furthermore, federal law requires all new voters who register by mail to show an ID before voting. As the Brennan Center report points out, “What is new, however, is the degree to which the voter ID bills that were proposed and passed.”Voter ID proponents claim that voter fraud has made stricter laws necessary, and that such laws won’t discourage voting by any group. Opponents, however, point out that voter fraud claims are not warranted and essentially are imposing a “poll tax,” whether or not the new identification is offered for free.There are “powerful forces” that support new voter ID laws, believes Moore, who has held a voter ID town hall in her district, which includes Milwaukee. “While all of our rights are essential, I would say the right to vote for everyone isn’t some ideal or goal, but a cornerstone of our democracy,” she reaffirmed.“Voting is a right, not a privilege,” continued Moore. Continue Reading

Mondale, Carlson, Penny step forward to co-chair coalition opposing photo ID

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The growing campaign to oppose the photo ID constitutional amendment introduced four prominent co-chairs at a news conference June 26. They represented all three of Minnesota’s major political parties: Democrat Walter Mondale, former U.S. Vice President; Republican Arne Carlson, former Minnesota Governor; and the Independence Party’s Tim Penny, a former U.S. Congressman. They were joined as co-chairs of the Our Vote Our Future coalition by longtime civil rights activist Josie Johnson.“Minnesota doesn’t have a voter problem,” Mondale said. In the 2008 U.S. Senate and 2010 governor recounts, he noted, “there wasn’t one suggestion, one hint, one whiff of a problem in the casting and processing of ballots… This constitutional amendment is designed to discourage voting. It’s not designed to fix a problem — because there isn’t one.”“Frankly, it terrifies me,” said Carlson, denouncing the amendment. Continue Reading

Teens know little about Photo ID amendment

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This fall, voters in Minnesota will decide on two amendments that would change the state’s constitution. Many people know about the marriage amendment, but of more than a dozen teens interviewed for this article, few knew about the photo ID amendment.If approved, this amendment would require that Minnesotans have a state-issued photo ID like a driver’s license in order to vote.Why should you care? Because this amendment would change the state’s whole system of voting. For example, it might not be possible to register to vote on Election Day, as many young people do now. And college students who go away to school in Minnesota couldn’t just use their student ID to vote. Continue Reading

Political parties and student groups urge youth to vote

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In 2008, young voters helped make Barack Obama the president. Although the high turnout of people aged 18-29 is not expected to be repeated this year, political parties, campaigns and youth organizations are working hard to make sure that young people make their voices and votes heard.Low turnout rates have always been a pattern with young voters, but Matt Smriga, director of campus organizing with the Minnesota State University Student Association, works to change that. MSUSA is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that educates youth on how to vote and why it’s important.“Our democracy doesn’t work if people aren’t really paying attention and very few people are showing up to vote,” Smriga said.Youth confused about how to voteAccording to Smriga, the biggest reason young people don’t vote is because of their confusion over the polling process.“By far the most important thing to do is just educating young people about how to vote — what the process is,” Smriga said. “For whatever reason, that’s incredibly intimidating for someone who has never voted before.”Younger voters sometimes trivialize the voting process because they don’t know how to navigate it, he said. His job is to devise programs to show them the ropes, in order to make voting more accessible and less complex.This is why he and MSUSA oppose the Voter ID Amendment that will be on the ballot this November.“If you add a whole other set of rules, and regulations, and steps that young people need to take, that’s really going to negatively impact their turnout rate,” Smriga said.Social networking hot tool for campaigns wooing young votersMeanwhile, presidential campaigns are working on securing the votes of youth. Continue Reading

THREE ISSUES | A Minnesotan’s candid thoughts on the 2012 state election

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Willie is an employee of the FATHER project, a Minneapolis organization that assists fathers in overcoming barriers that prevent them from supporting their children economically and emotionally. He had some interesting thoughts on the upcoming state elections.FP: “What are some concerns, concepts, or issues that you hope to see addressed in the upcoming state elections?”W: “Well, certainly the state budget, especially regarding education. The two proposed amendments to the state constitution definetely worry me. Both proposed amendments seem designed to discriminate against people….”FP: “What makes you feel that way?”W: “Well, we as a country, from the founding fathers on forward, have placed a premium on progressing human rights, from ending human slavery, to expanding voting rights across race and gender, and so on and so forth. So to me, the proposed voter ID constitutional amendment is just a way to restrict segments of our voting population. Continue Reading