With the 2012 elections looming, states have passed a slew of laws making voting more difficult, including voter ID laws. Opponents of the new laws say the rules will make it harder for minorities and young people to vote in the upcoming elections.

The office of Democratic Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., announced that the letter urges secretaries of state across the country “to oppose new state measures adopted over the last year that would make it harder for eligible voters to register or vote.”

“A year from now, millions of Americans will head to the polls to exercise their most fundamental right—the right to vote,” Hoyer said in a press release. “Unfortunately, in states across the country, partisan measures have been adopted that would make it more difficult for nearly five million voters, particularly the poor, young people, the elderly, and minorities, to register and vote.”

House Democrats signing onto the letter said voter restriction laws were a “disturbing trend.”

“Election legislation and administration appear to be increasingly the product of partisan plays,” the letter read. “It is critical for our democracy that this does not continue. Voting hours, voting sites, identification requirements, voter registration regulation and access to mail ballots should not be used as weapons to achieve a preferred electoral outcome.”

The letter asked secretaries of state to “be vigilant in protecting against fraud but equally vigilant in protecting the franchise for all our citizens.”

“History has taught us that our democracy has suffered far more from elected officials who chose to deny some of our citizens the opportunity to vote than from any other cause,” the letter reads. “There is no greater threat to our democracy than a diminished belief that the rules are fair and fairly administered.”

The letter is signed by Rep. Collin Peterson, Rep. Keith Ellison, Rep. Betty McCollum and Rep. Tim Walz.

A voter ID law was vetoed by Gov. Mark Dayton in 2011, although Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer (R-Big Lake) has said she plans to pursue a voter ID law in 2012 as a constitutional amendment.

On Wednesday, Pawlenty vetoed (pdf) a bill that would have required that the state notify felons when their civil rights restored upon completion of their sentences — including providing voter-registration applications. He wrote:

[C]itizens should bear some responsibility for being informed about their situations and rights.

Last night, Pawlenty vetoed (pdf) a “motor-voter” bill that would have automatically registered eligible Minnesota residents as voters when they apply for licenses or permits to drive, or another state ID card. He wrote:

[R]egistering to vote should be a voluntary, intentional act.

There’s nothing new about the northern Minnesota reservation getting attention during tight election contests. As reported here last month, the director of President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election campaign, Ed Rollins, is fond of recalling how he had to talk down hard-charging colleagues who wanted to recount what they thought were suspicious votes there (by “dead Indians”) in hopes of netting the Gipper a full 50-state sweep. And Red Lake has had experience with close races and calls for recounts in tribal government elections as recently as 2006.

The area has even found a way to play a leading role in the preliminaries to the historic recount that begins this week in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election. Last week the Franken campaign put forward what turned out to be mostly a rural legend about an elderly woman whose absentee ballot was rejected because after she had a stroke, her signature no longer matched the one on file. Even as it emerged that this wasn’t the case, the woman was never identified publicly — except that she lives in Beltrami County, where most of the Red Lake reservation lies.