It's on my account too if it goes away. RT @SheilaKihne: @JenDeJournett Screen shot that baby, let's figure out their sponsors
Candidate for Secretary of State, Dan Severson has a must read piece at the Strib with the subtitle: Preventing felons from voting is one of many benefits of this simple change.
Imagine a comparable editorial from SOS Mark Ritchie. Maybe something like this: Looking the other way when felons vote is one of many benefits of this keeping me in charge.
Here's the lead to Severson's piece. Read the rest here.
The recent revelation ("Twin Cities prosecutors look into allegations of illegal voting," July 12) that dozens, if not hundreds, of felons voted in the 2008 election points to one fact: Minnesota should institute a photo ID requirement for voting.
What is remarkable about this story is that a private organization, Minnesota Majority, had to do all the legwork, at its own expense, and yet the organization persevered to discover the dirty truth, while Secretary of State Mark Ritchie stonewalled, cast aspersions on these concerned citizens and pointed fingers at other officials.
But let's be clear: On the front end of the process, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the court system are doing their jobs by identifying felons and relaying that information to Ritchie so he can make sure the voter rolls are up to date and do not include people who are ineligible to vote.
On the other end of the process, as the recent news story indicated, the county attorneys are also doing their jobs by prosecuting felons who are detected.
The problem is in the middle: The secretary of state has failed Minnesota by allowing felons to cast ballots and thereby effectively stealing the votes of legitimate voters.
It is not good enough to try to detect illegitimate voters after the fact. By then, the damage is done, because a secret ballot cannot be retrieved from the ballot box once it is cast.
Election technology called an "electronic poll book" now exists, and is being used in other states, that would allow for quick detection of an ineligible voter trying to get a ballot. Such technology relies on interface a with driver's license or state-issued photo ID.
