Bachmann had name removed from public voter list
Friday, October 22, 2010 at 12:32 pm
- 11 Comments
Rep. Michele Bachmann had her name removed from a public voting record under a law intended to protect people’s safety, especially victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. According to the St. Cloud Times, Bachmann is the only member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation to have her name pulled from the state’s list of registered voters. But while Bachmann’s office says she removed her name for “privacy” reasons, that’s not the intent of the law.
“I don’t think we can speak to the other members of Congress,” Bachmann spokesman Sergio Gor told the paper. “For her, it was just a privacy issue.”
The Times notes that the law was intended to protect those whose personal safety is threatened. Gor told the Times that Bachmann’s safety had not been threatened when she made the request.
There were two laws passed in 2005 that dealt with removing information from the voter list.
Before 2005, to have one’s name removed from the list of required a court order, but legislators passed a law that year that made exceptions for the “safety of the voter or the voter’s family.”
According to the law, “Upon receipt of a statement signed by the voter that withholding the voter’s name from the public information list is required for the safety of the voter or the voter’s family, the secretary of state and county auditor must withhold from the public information list the name of any a registered voter.”
A similar law was also passed in 2006 regarding removal of addresses from the voting record.
The legislature finds that individuals attempting to escape from actual or threatened domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking frequently establish new addresses in order to prevent their assailants or probable assailants from finding them. The purpose of this chapter is to enable state and local agencies to respond to requests for data without disclosing the location of a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking;
Bachmann voted for both pieces of legislation.
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Comment posted October 22, 2010 @ 4:33 pm
She may be afraid of protesters confronting her at a polling place. After all, in-your-face encounters with politicians is accecptable only for tea partiers.
Or she may be moving out of the Sixth District, anticipating being redistricted out of a job. She doesn’t have to live in the district she was elected to represent, but most voters expect it (I can’t say I would blame her if she does move. The Sixth District must be a madhouse–just look at their congressional representative!).
Comment posted October 22, 2010 @ 6:52 pm
How did this obscure piece of information come to light?
Why would anybody be looking into Michele Bachmann’s voter registration record?
Comment posted October 23, 2010 @ 2:19 am
Bachmann is a rich, money grubbing two faced lying freakazoid!! Her and W would make a great couple. I bet they have done the wild thing!! Remember how she hung all over him at the State of the Union speech?
Comment posted October 23, 2010 @ 3:20 am
It’s fair to want to know where and how your employees are living. That’s your money they’re living on and your money they are spending – supposedly on your behalf, when it comes to the public trough.
Wouldn’t you want to know if your elected representative were part of a Moonie commune, a Buddhist ashram, living in the basement of a Muslim mosque, or part of some sort of weird cult housing pregnant teens for the last month of their pregnancy
and “protecting them from abortion” before turning them out once the baby is born?
Especially if your elected representative had been collecting thousands of tax dollars each month for running a dormitory for these kids, and then claiming s/he’d “raised them as foster children”?
Comment posted October 23, 2010 @ 6:50 am
From someone looking afar (all the way in Belle Plaine MN – but with many friends in Bachmann’s district), sadly, from her hug of President Bush to her pandering to the very farthest right of our political spectrum, she has accomplished nothing in Congress and some would say is a total embarrassment to our state. I wish her apparent goals were to provide a better Minnesota for all of us. I’m am so happy to be living outside of her congressional district. It’s great to be represented by someone with quality credentials like Tim Walz.
Comment posted October 23, 2010 @ 11:56 am
If i lived in the Mn 6th, I would vote for Tarryl Clark over Michele Bachmann based on Mrs. Clark’s record of hard work for Minnesota families while serving in the state legislature.
However, I don’t find any fault with Mrs. Bachmann seeking a little more privacy, even though a public official.
It’s a big country, and there are extremists at the edges of every political direction. No one should be threatened nor their family as a result of public service
Of course, it might be safer for candidates to run for public office if some elected officials weren’t encouraging people to be “armed and dangerous” as Michele Bachmann herself has done. As ye sow, so shall ye reap, unfortunately
Comment posted October 23, 2010 @ 1:42 pm
I wonder if I could use that to protect my voter registration from being challenged by republicans, or whether they would challenge my right to vote *because* I hid my registration?
Comment posted October 23, 2010 @ 11:04 pm
The point is Bachmann is a member of congress and her name should appear on the Voter registration listing, just like the rest of MN citizens. She is USING a law designed to protect victims of abuse from harm for personal gain. She is an elected official, all her information is a matter of public record. She has been a forerunner in the racism and hatred that has transgressed the nation. She couldn’t stand the idea that the country had a black president and she questioned the loyalties of everyone in the House except herself. She is an uninformed bigot who collects a salary from her constituents and does nothing to earn it. She is the ultimate FREELOADER.
Comment posted October 24, 2010 @ 3:36 am
It is kind of an insignificant story, but I’m grateful you guys find this stuff. No other media outlet reports on 1/8 of the stuff you do. Thank you.
But I have no doubt if Clark did something similar, the Bachmann camp would be all over it in a flash. I’m sure we would see something like:
“Who is Tarryl Clark hiding from? The people NEED to know.”
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