Senate passes voter ID bill

The Minnesota Senate passed a sweeping voter identification bill Thursday that would require voters to present a government-issued photo ID card in order to vote in the state. Republicans said the measure is intended to prevent voter fraud, which they say has disenfranchised legitimate voters, while Democrats countered that it would be a travesty to democracy if even one voter was disenfranchised because they didn’t have an ID.

“Our freedom and democracy is at stake,” exhorted Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassen, in urging members to vote for the bill.

Maple Grove Sen. Warren Limmer brought up a familiar refrain among Republicans: “You need to use a photo ID to make a bank transaction, to rent a movie, to buy a drink at a bar, and to get on an airplane. But heaven forbid we ask someone to show an ID to vote and maintain integrity in our election system. If any illegitimate voter votes, it disenfranchises a legitimate voter, and this is a cure for that.”

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, said there’s a lot of misinformation floating around and pointed to the controversy surrounding President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.

“This bill won’t stop the .0001 percent of voters who were felons in the last election. It doesn’t indicate felon status on a driver’s license,” he said. “It doesn’t stop non-citizens from voting. It doesn’t have your citizenship status on an ID.”

He criticized Republicans’ argument that only 144,000 Minnesotans don’t have photo identification.

“Our gubernatorial race was decided by 9,000 votes; 144,000 is insignificant?,” he said. “This is as bizarre as asking the President of the United States to produce a birth certificate after two years in office. This is bizarre.”

Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said, “We just went through very intensive voter recounts in this state in 2008 and 2010. The whole country was watching. There were no cases of voter impersonation in those elections,” he said. “This bill is about putting roadblocks up to the ballot box.”

Sen. Linda Higgins, DFL-Minneapolis, said, “This voter ID bill is a bad bill. It’s disenfranchisement.”

She said the provision would keep low-income people, individuals living in battered women’s shelters and elderly citizens from voting.

“We should be proud of the system we have now,” she said. “If we pass a bill that prevents one person from voting we should be ashamed of ourselves.”

With that, the Senate voted along party lines to pass the bill. A companion bill has passed through three committees in the House and will have another committee hearing this week.