Take Action Minnesota said most of the felons who voted did so accidentally, which could be corrected by passage of the felon notification bill that had been opposed by Minnesota Majority.
Activists on both sides of Minnesota’s anti–gay marriage amendment battle have made claims about the politics of the ballot initiative that don’t square with recent research on the issue.
As Minnesota Majority turns Gov. Mark Dayton into a toy robot in one of its two new ads criticizing the governor’s budget plan and the possibility of a government shutdown, labor groups introduce an ad with a different message: state employees calling for a tax increase for Minnesota’s wealthiest.
Minnesota Majority, Minnesota Voters Alliance and the North Star Tea Party Patriots lost a case in court on Friday when U.S. District Court Judge Joan Erickson dismissed the trio’s challenge to a state law that bans political apparel in the polling place. The groups had attempted a campaign to have their supporters bring “Please ID Me” buttons and tea party t-shirts into polling places, but elections officials said the items would not be allowed.
House Speaker Kurt Zellers said that voting is not a right, but a privilege Wednesday evening, the Star Tribune reports. Zellers is not the first conservative to make that claim during the debate over voter ID which is heating up the Minnesota Legislature. Republicans and voter ID advocates have compared showing identification for voting to everything from cashing a check to boarding a plane to buying cigarettes.
Is the right to vote the same as the right to buy beer, cigarettes and airline tickets? That seemed to be the argument made by proponents of a bill seeking to mandate photo identification for voters that was heard Monday afternoon in the Senate Committee on Local Government and Elections.
Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer of Big Lake and Sen. Warren Limmer of Maple Grove unveiled the Republican plan to overhaul the state’s voting system at a press conference on Wednesday. Among the proposed changes are the elimination of vouching, implementation of a photo identification system, a ban on health care workers assisting voters in the booth, and massive changes to the recount process. Most of the changes reflect complaints by the conservative group Minnesota Majority, which Kiffmeyer ran several years ago.
The executive director of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association says Minnesota Majority’s reports of massive voter fraud in the 2008 election were “widely overstated” and “frivolous,” adding that the conservative group’s demands of those investigating suspected voter fraud were draining county public safety resources.
A Minnesota District Court judge refused on Monday to issue a restraining order allowing tea partiers and vote-fraud monitors to wear “Please ID Me” buttons and t-shirts with tea party slogans in polling places on Tuesday. Election Integrity Watch requested the restraining order after Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said the materials would not be allowed in polling places.
Election Integrity Watch, a coalition of groups including Minnesota Majority and the North Star Tea Party Patriots, filed suit in district court on Thursday afternoon against the state of Minnesota to allow their members to wear “Please ID Me” buttons and tea party t-shirts at polling places throughout the state.
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