MANKATO, Minn. -
The latest polling shows 53% OF Minnesotans supporting the Voter I-D amendment, making it sure to be a close decision on November 6th.
If passed, the Voter ID amendment will require photo identification of all voters at the polls, a proposition supported by Republicans, and detested by Democrats.
Republicans want to replace Minnesota's voting rules, considered to be the most open in the country.
A person can vote in the state if a registered voter vouches that they live in the precinct, which Republicans claim is an opportunity for fraud.
Rep. Tony Cornish (R-Good Thunder) says, "That's ridiculous. How can you vouch for somebody? Somebody that comes in should have some form of ID and the baloney that's being spread is that we're not going to give them the ID. The ID will be free; it will be furnished by the state. The mail-in balloting will not stop. The absentee balloting will not stop. And they greatly exaggerated the figures it'll cost local government by ten times."
Democrats meanwhile say the measure will keep many people who can legally vote from casting a ballot, and will create big problems for polling locations, urban and rural alike.
Rep. Terry Morrow (DFL-St. Peter) says, "If this amendment were put into our Constitution, nobody can guarantee that the townships aren't going to have to go back to onsite voting. That means that if you got a township of 30 voters, those 30 folks have to look around the room and figure out who's going to sit in the polls from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M., they're going to have to figure out how to make the township halls disability accessible. No one's explained to the township officers who's going to pay for it, and no one's explained to them who's been cheating in your township that this is even an issue."
When it comes to the costs, and potential side effects of the Voter ID amendment, the two sides agree on virtually nothing, with no middle ground to help discern the reality of the law.
So the vote will probably come down to closing arguments.
Cornish says, "The biggest argument is just common sense and logic. You need an ID for everything else you do in the world, why not for one of the most important decisions you make?"
Morrow says, "We don't know what it's going to do to voter turnout, we don't know what the costs are going to be to get these documents, we don't' know what's going to happen to people in nursing homes - we don't know. And when you don't know, you should vote no."
