Wisconsin Family Action (WFA), a group affiliated with the Family Research Council and a leader in opposing LGBT rights in the state, is being accused by Democrats of sending out absentee ballot applications with an inaccurate deadline for the state’s Aug. 9 recall elections. The mailers were sent in conjunction with Americans for Prosperity, a group founded by the Koch Brothers who have ties to Gov. Scott Walker.

The absentee ballot applications told voters they needed to be returned by Aug. 11, two days after the Aug. 9 deadline set by the state. The address listed on the ballot as “application processing center” belongs to WFA not a county clerk’s office where the ballots must be returned by the deadline.

The mailing was sent out in the districts of Sheila Harsdorf, R-River Falls, and Rob Cowles, R-Allouez, who are facing recall challenges from Democrats Shelly Moore and Nancy Nusbaum.

A Democratic voter who received the ballot made a video of the ballot explaining the problems with it.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, two people who have received the inaccurate ballots are in the process of filing complaints against WFA and AFP.

AFP told reporters on Monday that the group was not trying to mislead voters and that the mailing only went out to its members.

Matt Seaholm, state director of AFP, blamed the mistake on a typo, saying his group was not trying to mislead anyone.

“This just went out to our members,” the group’s head Matt Seaholm told the Journal Sentinel. “I’m sure the liberals will try to make a mountain out of a molehill in an attempt to distract voters’ attention from the issues.”

Here’s a copy of the mailings and complaint filed against AFP and WFA which was obtained by the Journal Sentinel:

AFP+complaint

Last week, Republican Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer of Big Lake said that if she couldn’t get her bill to require photo identification at the voting booth passed into law, she would seek a constitutional amendment. She made good on that promise Wednesday when she and 33 other Republicans introduced a measure that if passed would put the issue on the ballot in 2012.

Under the bill, HF1597, the ballot question would read, “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to require that all voters present an approved form of photographic identification prior to voting; all voters be subject to identical eligibility verification standards regardless of the time of their registration; and the state provide at no charge an approved photographic identification to eligible voters?”

Kiffmeyer already has a bill, HF210, in the House that is on the move; it’s passed three committees and has the support of the vast majority of Republicans. A companion bill, SF509, is awaiting a vote on the Senate floor. Gov. Mark Dayton has not threatened to veto the bill yet, but said he’d like campaign finance reform to a part of any elections bill.

The constitutional amendment was introduced by Kiffmeyer along with Reps. Mike Benson of Rochester, Kurt Zellers of Maple Grove, Pat Garofalo of Farmington, Matt Dean of Dellwood, Kurt Daudt of Crown, Sondra Erickson of Princeton, Pam Myhra of Burnsville, Ron Shimanski of Silver Lake, Larry Howes of Walker, Steve Drazkowski of Mazeppa, Glenn Gruenhagen of Glencoe, Chris Swedzinski of Ghent, Kathy Lohmer of Lake Elmo, Bruce Anderson of Buffalo Township, Paul Torkelson of Nelson Township, Debra Kiel of Crookston, Pat Mazorol of Bloomington, Steve Gottwalt of St. Cloud, Keith Downey of Edina, Bruce Vogel of Willmar, Andrea Kieffer of Woodbury, Dan Fabian of Roseau, Roger Crawford of Mora, Kelby Woodard of Belle Plaine, Doug Wardlow of Eagan, Mike LeMieur of Little Falls, Tony Cornish of Good Thunder, Ernie Leidiger of Mayer, Duane Quam of Byron, Connie Doepke of Orono, Bob Barrett of Shafer, Paul Anderson of Starbuck, and Greg Davids of Preston.

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.

Kiffmeyer said that the new system unveiled today has stood up to court challenges.

“This is a concept, modeled on the Indiana voting system which has been ruled constitutional by the Indiana Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court,” she said. “This is a system that I think is good for Minnesotans.”

Limmer added that they are proposing the changes because Minnesotans increasingly don’t trust the voting system. “I am excited about being a part of this major revision of Minnesota election law,” he said. “We hear from citizens who are growing suspicious of our election process.”

Among the changes proposed in the bill include the requirement of photo identification for voters. Under the bill, an electronic registration system would be set up that would scan IDs at the polling place. Voters would then be required to sign a receipt that would be printed off.

“This is a receipt that has value and meaning,” Kiffmeyer said. “I think the court case that was in the news in regards to voter receipts… This addresses that concern that was well in the news and well talked about.”

Kiffmeyer was referring to a petition filed by the Republican Party to the Minnesota Supreme Court in the Minnesota gubernatorial recount which tried to force counties to count names on the voter roster instead of voter receipts. The court rejected the GOP case.

Kiffmeyer said that the costs of setting up an electronic voting system haven’t been determined yet, but that the the state of Minnesota would pick up the tab.

Low-income individuals could get the IDs for free at any Department of Public Safety office. When asked about people who are physically unable to get to a DPS office to get an ID, Kiffmeyer didn’t have an easy answer. “Those folks are in a very unique special circumstance,” she said adding that there are some details to work out. “We will be meeting with folks,” she said.

Should the measure pass, vouching would become a thing of the past in Minnesota, and same-day registration would require the same photo ID requirements as a registered voter.

The bill also spells out new ballot handling requirements.

Limmer said the bill was intended to fix the alleged problem of ballots discovered in the trunks of cars.

“When we, a few short years ago, were trying to validate the Franken-Coleman election, we find a box of ballots in the trunk of someone’s car,” he said. “That has not been corrected since that time. This would correct that.”

A reporter noted, however, that the incident never happened.

Limmer brushed that fact off and added, “There’s a history of discrepancies in balloting in certain precincts. It seems like it’s a constant that is highlighted by close elections.”

Other provisions in the bill would change Minnesota election law. If passed, the bill would prohibit voting assistance by “the voter’s court-appointed guardian or conservator” or “any paid individual providing health care or health-related personal assistance to the voter.”

That law change has been sought by Minnesota Majority, a group that has been touting an unsubstantiated claim that a health care worker in Crow Wing County voted for people with developmental disabilities and that people who did not have the mental capacity to vote cast ballots in the last election. An investigation found no evidence that those claims were true.

Another subtle change appears to be geared toward Minnesota Majority. The ban on wearing political attire in polling plaes would only be banned “if it is designed to influence voting for or against a particular candidate, political party, or question on the ballot at the election.”

The previous law was more broad and prevented Minnesota Majority’s “Please ID Me” buttons and Tea Party regalia from being worn in the polling place.

Kiffmeyer was the executive director of Minnesota Majority as recently as 2008, and she was Secretary of State prior to DFLer Mark Ritchie.

In a statement on Wednesday, Ritchie criticized the bill.

“This omnibus bill contains a wide range of expansive and expensive election law changes,” he said. “Careful research and analysis of this bill will certainly be necessary to determine the exact cost and impact on local and state governments.”

He said that implementing an electronic voting system in Minnesota could cost as much as $20 million.

“The bill’s implications will also be analyzed by groups who would be affected including absentee and military voters, seniors, and voters with disabilities,” he said. “At a time when lawmakers are looking to streamline government and create efficiencies, HF 210 includes many proposals that would significantly increase the state’s budget deficit and create higher on-going costs for cities, counties and townships.”

The DFL offered its own press conference on Wednesday.

“This proposal is a risk that we cannot afford,” said Rep. Steve Simon of Hopkins. “There’s a very real prospect that tens of thousands of law-abiding Minnesotans will be fenced out of the voting process.”

He said that voter fraud in Minnesota is very low, and in the last election 100 percent of the convictions were for felons voting illegally.

“How will voter ID at the polls impact felons from voting when felons already have ID cards?” he asked.

Rep. Ryan Winkler of Golden Valley agreed. “This bill does nothing to address felon voting.”

“The real reason the Republicans are pushing a photo ID bill is because they think that’s the best and most effective way to block voters from the polls that they think are going to vote for Democrats,” he said. “This is a partisan ploy.”

Gov. Tim Pawlenty handed over artifacts from his time as governor on Monday including an over-sized “Veto Pen.” In a press release from the governor’s office, Pawlenty boasted that he broke the record for most vetoes in one year and that he used the veto or line-item veto 299 times in his 8 years in office.

The statement from his office read, “Today, (Monday, December, 27, 2010) Governor Tim Pawlenty turned over documents and artifacts from his eight years as Governor to the Minnesota Historical Society, including an oversized ‘Veto Pen’ and the actual veto stamps he used. During his time in office, Governor Pawlenty issued 299 complete bill and line-item vetoes, including vetoing $7.5 billion in tax increases. In 2008, Pawlenty set a record for the most bill vetoes issued in one year by a Minnesota governor.”

Among those 299 bills that Pawlenty vetoed in recent years: a bill to legalize marijuana for terminally ill patients, a bill to allow the surviving member of a same-sex couple to make decisions for their dead partner, a voter fraud prevention bill that would alert felons that their voting rights had been revoked, a bill to standardize anti-bullying procedures in schools, a bill to streamline absentee voting, a bill that decriminalized bong water, state funding for stem cell research, a bill that would regulate toxins in children’s toys, and a $1 billion tax bill,

Minnesota media is reporting several instances of overzealous election challengers in polling places as the Republican Party of Minnesota ramps up its allegations of voter fraud. In several Minnesota precincts, reporters confirmed that GOP poll challengers have overstepped their bounds. Meanwhile, the GOP claims that ballot scanners were not working properly in some jurisdictions and that group home assistants have been telling people how to vote.

Most election experts have indicated that there haven’t been widespread reports of voter intimidation or voter fraud. As Secretary of State Mark Ritchie tweeted today, “Voter intimidation reports in MPLS but mostly it is a smooth as silk voting day”

The Associated Press reports that in Hennepin County there have been some tense conversations between election judges and GOP challengers who don’t seem to understand the rules.

Hennepin County Elections Manager Rachel Smith said that the poll challengers were entering restricted areas and making challenges that are against the rules. She told TPM, “I think we were very firm, we had to be very firm with some of the polling place challengers who wanted to have more range in the polling place than the law permitted them to.”

The Minnesota Independent received a report this morning that a poll challenger at the Emerson school in the Loring Park area of Minneapolis was challenging Somali voters. That report could not be immediately verified, however.

The Star Tribune reports that in Shakopee a GOP challenger questioned the registration of a voter because he was “too young.”

In Bloomington, the Star Tribune reports, an African American woman was asked by an election judge if she was a felon after she had already affirmed her oath. “I am an African American woman and I do believe this old Caucasian biddy was targeting me,” she told the Minneapolis paper. “Things are getting out of hand!”

Election Integrity Watch, a conservative group offering a $500 bounty for reports of voter fraud, has been bringing their “Voter Fraud. It’s a Felony,” banner to neighborhoods in St. Paul on a trailer behind a pickup truck, according to a number of Twitter reports.

Rep. Keith Ellison called the billboard “voter intimidation.”

“Minnesota residents have reported sightings of a mobile billboard driving through Minneapolis affixed with Election Integrity Watch’s poster of an individual in handcuffs, which is designed to suppress and intimidate voters,” he said. “If this proves to be true, it threatens Minnesota’s tradition of expanding the electorate and making it easy for people to participate in our voting process.”

He added, “I urge voters to stand up to Election Integrity Watch’s intimidation efforts, go to the polls, and cast your vote. There is nothing to be afraid of. If you are an eligible voter, you will be welcomed at the polls. Our state has a proud tradition of voting, and we need you to be part of it.”

On the flip side, the Minnesota GOP has been alleging voter fraud and voting machine problems.

The Star Tribune looked at one such case and found that a premarked ballot in Blaine was a simple error.

The GOP said that last week, absentee voters from an assisted living community in Crow Wing County were told how to vote by employees. Montgomery Jensen, a resident who filed an affidavit, challenged the voters’ mental disabilities and said the disability should disqualify them from voting.

The story was amplified by Fox News on Tuesday.

The GOP also alleges that “voting machines” in areas of the state have been malfunctioning. Minnesota uses scanning machines to tabulate paper ballots.

“The Republican Party of Minnesota has already received multiple reports of scanning machines failing to work in Duluth, Olmsted County, Lakeville, Faribault, Mendota Heights and Eagan,” said party chair Tony Sutton in a statement. “This is completely unacceptable. These machines should have been tested thoroughly before the election. The fact that we are seeing such failures around the state again demonstrates that Mark Ritchie has failed to properly prepare for the election, meaning Minnesotans could be disenfranchised because of Ritchie’s incompetence.”

Photo: Chris Steller, Minnesota Independent

Two groups are attempting to make voting in Minneapolis a bit more restrictive. Citizens for a Better Minneapolis and the Minnesota Voters Alliance are starting a petition in hopes of requiring that residents show a photo identification in order to vote in the city. Critics note that the majority of the activists in these groups are not Minneapolis residents, and one of the groups, Citizens for a Better Minneapolis, didn’t exist until a week ago, as a post on Minneapolis City Council member Cam Gordon’s blog points out. The executive director of one of the groups dismissed such criticisms as “irrelevant” and called those lodging the complaints “fruitcakes.”

The Minnesota Voters Alliance (MVA) held a rally on Tuesday evening in Painter Park in Minneapolis to “kick off a petition drive in Minneapolis to require Photo I.D’s in City Elections,” according to a press release. The event’s featured speaker was MVA board member and former Secretary of State Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer, a resident of Big Lake, an exurb northwest of Minneapolis.

Like Kiffmeyer, other backers of the petition live outside Minneapolis: MVA’s executive director, Andy Cilek, lives in Eden Prairie, a suburb southeast of Minneapolis, and the group’s assistant director, Matt Marchetti, lives in North St. Paul, a suburb northwest of St. Paul. MVA co-founder Michael Degnan lives in St. Paul, while MVA board member Tom Dahlberg resides in Shorewood, a St. Paul suburb. Still another board member, Dr. Terrence Flower, lives in Hastings, near the Wisconsin border.

The only Minneapolis resident who seems to be involved in the effort is Kris Broberg, a Ron Paul Republican who recently ran for city council and who registered Citizens for a Better Minneapolis with the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office last Tuesday.

Robin Garwood, an aide to Gordon, pointed out on Gordon’s Second Ward blog that MVA is “a suburban-based, right-wing organization whose main purpose has been, in my opinion, to oppose democratic empowerment of Minnesotans, mostly at the municipal level.” In an email to the Minnesota Independent, MVA’s Cilek dismissed criticisms that most of the petition’s backers are suburbanites and that the CBM is one week old.

“These characteristics that you describe are irrelevant,” said Cilek. “If you think you should print it… please do so.”

He added, “This is a statewide effort, and our leadership certainly doesn’t rely on what some fruitcake bloggers think, or Cam Gordon.”

On Gordon’s blog, Garwood explained the opposition to a photo identification mandate for voting.

This proposal will make it much harder for Minneapolis residents to vote, especially poor people, old people, young people who don’t yet have a drivers’ license. I say this as someone who has worked as an election judge in a precinct (2-10, to be specific) with a large population of elderly citizens who do not speak english as a first language and who do not have drivers licenses. This will make it harder for these residents to exercise their constitutional right to vote, but it goes beyond them. It will make it harder for everyone in Minneapolis to vote; longer lines, more inconvenience, less congeniality between voters and election judges. I am convinced that this is the proposal’s actual intent. All of the arguments about “protecting” legitimate votes are a ruse. These organizations don’t like it when Minneapolitans vote, because they typically don’t agree with us on matters of policy.

Rep. Michele Bachmann. Minnesota Independent file photo

Late last week, Rep. Michele Bachmann’s Democratic challengers criticized her for her ambitious travel schedule and growing celebrity. The campaigns of Dr. Maureen Reed and state Sen. Tarryl Clark asserted that Bachmann’s busy media and speaking schedule has caused her to miss votes in Congress.

“Michele is not delivering for the people of the 6th Congressional District, but also not doing the job in D.C. — missing 11 percent of votes this session,” Reed’s campaign said Friday with the release of its “Where’s Michele?” map. Clark’s campaign released a map of its own and cited a Washington Post report from October 2009 that showed Bachmann has missed more votes than all but 10 members of the House. “It’s clear Congresswoman Bachmann’s priorities are chasing her national celebrity and pursuing her personal agenda – and those priorities come at the expense of her district,” the campaign said.

How accurate are these criticisms?

An analysis by the Minnesota Independent shows that Bachmann has missed more votes than any member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation in the 111th Congress — even after subtracting votes missed when Bachmann left to spend time with an ill family member. Twenty of the 47 remaining votes Bachmann missed occurred on days when the Sixth District Republican had media appearances scheduled. But while these media moments loosely coincide with her missed votes, it’s unclear whether her absences are directly linked to her ambitious travel schedule. Bachmann’s office hasn’t respond to the Minnesota Independent’s request to clarify this point.

Here’s a tally of votes not taken by Minnesota’s delegation:

Michele Bachmann: 47

Keith Ellison: 37

Betty McCollum: 35

James Oberstar: 17

Collin Peterson: 16

Erik Paulsen: 14

John Kline: 13

Tim Walz: 12

Bachmann’s total count for missed votes is officially 114, but many of these votes — 67 of them — occurred on a single weekend. For instance, on June 18, as the House was holding a record number of votes, Bachmann was out of town spending time with an ill family member. (Rep. Keith Ellison was attending his son’s graduation that day and missed the same number of votes; with those votes included, he missed a total of 90 votes.)

Missed votes with media appearances

In some instances, House votes seemed to directly conflict with Bachmann’s media schedule, while in others Bachmann’s missed votes occurred on days where she had one or several media events planned.

On Nov. 5, Bachmann missed a vote “Honoring and Recognizing the Service and Achievements of Current and Former Female Members of the Armed Forces” because of her appearance at the Tea Party House Call that she organized at the Capitol and was held at the same time. Bachmann missed the vote at 12:37 p.m., and her House Call appearance was from noon to 2 p.m.

On Nov. 4, Bachmann did not vote for the Expedited Card Reform for Consumers Act of 2009, which beefs up consumer protections in the credit industry. That same day she appeared on the Glenn Beck’s show to build support for her Tea Party event the next day. It’s the media appearance where she said, “Socialized medicine is the crown jewel. But tomorrow is our Super Bowl of freedom.”

On Nov. 3, Bachmann appeared on the Family Research Council’s webcast, “Government Takeover of Healthcare: Counting the Cost.” Bachmann also had an appearance on Fox and Friends in the morning and on Sean Hannity’s show that evening. Bachmann wasn’t present for a vote to oppose the United Nations’ fact-finding report from Gaza, but she did cosponsor it and send out a press release on its passage.

Bachmann missed a vote on Oct. 22 condemning the government of Iran for religious persecution against people of the Baha’i faith. The same day she was a guest on San Francisco’s conservative KSFO-AM, where she said, “When you talk about Obama, you just can’t not come up with jokes.”

On Oct. 7, she didn’t make two votes on the Agriculture Appropriations bill. That day she appeared on Bill O’Reilly’s show, where both postulated that ACORN may have stolen the Minnesota Senate race for Al Franken.

Bachmann warned of a link between the Census and Japanese internment camps during World War II in a Fox News interview on June 25, the same day she missed a vote on the Interior Appropriations bill. She had an interview on CNBC the same day.

Bachmann appeared on Point of View “Defending Faith Family and Freedom” Radio on July 9, and was not present for a vote for “Recognizing the Significance of National Caribbean-American Heritage Month” the same day.

On May 21, there was a lunchtime fundraiser for Bachmann held by the Gula Graham Group. Individuals paid $250, and political action committees $1,000. That same day, Bachmann missed 10 votes.

On May 13, Bachmann was not present for a vote but had a press conference about ACORN with former ACORN employee Anita MonCrief.

Bachmann had an appearance on Fox Business Live on Feb. 10, the same day she missed a procedural vote.

Other dates that Bachmann was not present to vote: Jan. 26, 2010 (two votes), Feb. 3, 2010 (one vote), Feb. 24, 2009 (5 votes), April 2 (one vote), May 20 (nine votes), June 4 and 15 (5 votes), Sept. 17 (one vote) and Dec. 11 (one vote) and had no media appearances on those days.

The Minnesota Independent contacted the National Taxpayers Union to get a sense of how absences impact politics. NTU has in the past criticized Congress members for missing votes in order to campaign — and with a national media appearance every nine days, Bachmann seems to be in campaign mode. Pete Sepp, vice president for policy and communications, told the Minnesota Independent that legislators should not get paid for times they aren’t at work.

“Unlike many other things that Congress must vote on, this is an individual choice each representative can make without having to wait for clearance from an ethics committee, or a floor vote, or any other kind of procedure,” he said. “All they need to do is dock their own paychecks.”

Sepp stopped short of criticizing Bachmann’s record (the NTU has awarded Bachmann the Taxpayer’s Friend Award), but did note that representatives can request a “leave of absence” which officially excuses them from a vote.

“It’s important to remember, though, that some of Rep. Bachmann’s absences may have been excused by the Speaker in the Congressional Record,” he said.

According to the Congressional Record, Bachmann has requested two leaves of absence since she was elected to office: In mid-June when her stepmother was ill and at the end of May when her father-in-law passed away.

The bill would create identification cards that voters would apply for at county auditors’ offices.

“This would help to lessen the voter fraud in MN and keep our elections honest,” an email from the Minnesota Tea Party Patriots said. The group is urging Tea Partiers to contact their representative in order to get the bill passed out of committee.

Republicans have been trying –unsuccessfully– for years to tighten Minnesota’s voting laws. Minnesota has the highest voter turnout in the nation and outside observers have noted the elections here are also among cleanest in the country.

To stamp out voter fraud, GOP legislators have offered a proposal that would make Minnesota’s voter-ID laws the most restrictive in the country. But according to their own party, no actual cases of voter fraud have been reported here. Still Reps. Tom Emmer, R-Delano, and Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, have sponsored a bill requiring photo identification for every voter.

The Republican National Committee’s Minnesota voter fraud Web page announced, “There are no recent documented reports of vote fraud in this state.” And that’s with a recount of 2.9 million votes that took four months to scrutinize Minnesota’s election system.

But that hasn’t stopped Emmer or Kiffmeyer. “Voters want to know that their contribution to our enduring democracy will not be cancelled out through fraud or abuse,” wrote Emmer in a January opinion piece in the Pioneer Press. Kiffmeyer said at a late-January press conference on the bill that Minnesota’s voting system is vulnerable to fraudulent attacks unless a photo ID system is instituted.

“Mary Kiffmeyer should know better,” Hamline University professor David Schultz wrote today. “During her tenure as secretary of state she was unable to document any serious or widespread voter fraud. If fraud did exist, there is no indication that the current laws are ill-equipped to address the problem.”

“You can’t make this up!” reads the banner above the GOP’s results on Minnesota’s voter fraud. Apparently some in the GOP didn’t get that message.

The problem: Election officials would not accept the same kind of proof of residency they had in the past — a letter from building management that explains Chateau residents pay for their heat and electricity as part of their rent and therefore don’t have individual utility bills. A revised letter prepared quickly after the Chateau’s office opened at 10 a.m. didn’t pass muster either. A call to the national Election Protection hotline got the Minnesota Secretary State’s office and the Minneapolis City Attorney’s office involved. Finally, at 4 p.m., after much back and forth, the Chateau office got word that within the hour election officials would accept a third version of the letter that mimicked an invoice.

But by then, some of the Chateau’s 290 residents were turned away from the polls with a letter in hand that had always worked in past years — and some weren’t able to return to vote in the final three hours the polling place was open.

How many voters might’ve been turned away is unclear. About a quarter of Chateau residents are international students who are ineligible to vote, according to the Chateau’s management office, and of the others — likewise, all students — some probably pre-registered, voted absentee or were already on the voter rolls from past elections. With the statewide recount underway in the U.S. Senate race continuing to show a gap of fewer than 200 votes between leading candidates Al Franken and incumbent Norm Coleman, every vote counts.

But the transient student population in the building includes many first-time voters or recently moved-in residents who rely on Minnesota’s same-day voting registration to exercise their franchise. One was Jill Stein, who spoke with Minnesota Independent reporters recently about her experiences on Election Day. Stein returned twice to the polling place in the morning before giving up and arranging a ride from her parents so she could cast a ballot at their home polling place in Robbinsdale.