COLUMN: St. Louis County auditor’s message to voters: educate yourself on Voter ID amendment
October 5, 2012 at 7:07 am in Duluth News Tribune
I express neither support for or against the amendment here, but I ask voters to educate themselves about its impacts were it to pass. Continue Reading
“I express neither support for or against the amendment here…”
Coulda fooled me.
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He’s doesn’t want to sway your opinion but he just want’s us all to know he finds the question “troubling”. What a weasle.
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David, he is nothing less than a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
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You ALREADY need to have multiple official IDs to vote. You usually need multiple IDs to vote now, including (but not limited to) Social Security cards, marriage licenses, birth certificates, offical student ID card, etc.
The amendment ADDS that it must be one of a very small number of official photo IDs. State issued student photo IDs are not going to be counted. Car owners will have the big advantage here, since drivers licences count.
You can find a list of the IDs needed to vote now at :
http://www.sos.state.mn.us/index.aspx?page=204
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Student ID is just that, telling one they go to a specific educational center not where one lives.
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Yes, even now a student ID is not enough to vote. You need to bring some proof of residence too. The current law works just fine.
“IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT!”
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Mr. Dicklich. 1) Please stop sending junk mail to us. It’s a waste of money. 2) I don’t believe you’re not taking a stand on this. How dumb do you think we are? 3) If someone is not willing to prove who they are, they are either incredibly lazy, or (more likely) have something to hide/are trying to cheat.
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Voter fraud, serious issue, requires a serious response.
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He speaks neither for or against the amendment, but reserves the right to whine about the contents.
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Just another Liberal comment..
Pretty simple, want your vote to count, get an ID…
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It is not that difficult to understand, but apparently some people just can’t grasp the simplicity of it.
Even if you have an ID, it has to have a photo on it with your current address.
Even if you have one of those, you have to present it yourself to an election official in order for your vote to count. There is no way around it–the language will be written into our constitution and is clear.
That means absentee voters, mail in ballot voters, and the good people who serve and die for our country while in the military away from home–are put in the position of having to travel back with their ID in order for their vote to be counted!
There were amendments offered to get around these problems as this legislation was being discussed in the legislature.
Not a single one of those passed. That’s right, the same things that republicans are saying are not a big deal and can be fixed easily–the fix was available by republicans already refused to add them to the legislation!
And–this is rare even in this day of extreme partisan politics–not a single non-republican voted for this. Not one!
Somethings really stinks with this bill, and those behind are messing with a fundamental constitutional right here.
It is NOT as simple as get an ID to vote.
It will NOT be possible to implement this without spending a great deal of taxpayer money!
And election officials all over are warning voters to beware of what they vote for here!
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Every single person serving in the military already has a photo ID. This amendment would have absolutely no impact on them whatsoever. And people who currently use mail-in and absentee ballots already have to prove their identity and eligibility.
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You are completely wrong DanH. PLEASE read the actual language of the amendment we will be voting on. It is clear.
All voters are subject to the same proof using photo ID. If you are voting from afar, the only way that works is if you physically travel to the election office with your photo ID in hand. Otherwise your vote will NOT be counted!
And again, democrats tried to offer amendments to protect the right of absentee, military overseas, etc. voters to vote without having to be present in person to have their vote counted–but republicans in the legislature rejected it!
So don’t tell they can fix this later, they already had a chance to do so and turned that down!
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The whiners control the thumbs. What a system. You go Katy.
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LOL..that’s standard operating procedure whenever DFL Duluth Exposed posts a DNT link on his site.
Of course, come to think of it, there’s actually very little original content on his page.
Most everything there is just DNT stories.
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My ID has been expired for over a year, but I just don’t feel like paying $16 to renew it. If this amendment passes, I won’t have to.
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Signs one has completely lost their grip on reality:
Actually believe Dead people are voting. Believes Obama wasn’t born here. Believes Obama is a Muslim. Thinks Wealthy and corporate tax breaks creates jobs. Convinced despite not a shred of proof to back it up, that voter fraud is rampant. Believe Obama is responsible for total meltdown of economy. Believe Obama is responsible for the 5.1 Trillion in bailouts in play before elected President. Believe Obama is a socialist. Think Gays having equal legal rights affects and impacts hetreosexual marriages because obviously think marriage isn’t about love and committment, it’s just about sex. Promotes deregulation which caused economic meltdown as what we need to do more of. Believe It’s better to drain funding for childrens education then to ask wealthy to pay fair share. Convinced trickle down BS about tax breaks to wealthy that never worked and only adds to deficit is what need to defend at all costs. Convinced the poor and disabled are just lazy. Believe we have a wonderful healthcare system as is. Can’t grasp concept that people can function without a current government approved photo ID. Think after Republican policies wiped out whole segments of middle class sinking them below poverty line and cost average American a 39% loss of their wealth and created record bankruptcies, foreclosures and homelessness that making more poor and trying to help them is a subversive Democratic scheme. Actually believe that the solution to fixing the economy is to do exactly more of what caused the economic meltdown. Are convinced that Unions not corporate greed are the economic boogeyman that’s hampering economy. Believe it’s worth destroying our Democracy and spending money unnecessarily just to make sure everyone has a government issued photo ID. Are convinced their rhetoric though baseless, unfounded and completely contrary to facts makes complete sense. Support every policy that is completely contrary to their best interest while totally convinced that their delussional view that is in best interest is right.
“By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell — and hell heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed.”
Adolph H.
Sigh…with Republicans it’s not a question of whether they live in a fantasyland or not, it’s just a question of where in that domain they reside.
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Dicklich needs to be prosecuted along with Mark Ritche. He is supposed to be neutral in his job. It is still amazing how the dems are scared of a honest vote. Seems they cannot win without the college students voting at school instead of at home along with all the other questionable voters.
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“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”……Mr Dicklich…..Mr Ritchie and others like them….what on earth are they afraid of? This is NOT about disenfranchising ANYBODY……EXCEPT, for the folks who have been voting illegally…..non-citizens, felons, illegal immigrants etc….if you are LEGAL to vote in this country….you will continue to do so….no matter if you are in a nursing home, elderly, in the military, out of the country on vacation, college student attending school out of your home area…..THIS IS NOT TAKING AWAY ANYBODY’S VOTE……AS LONG AS YOU ARE LEGAL TO VOTE! Apparently, the DFL is afraid of this……WHY??? Please elaborate, with sensible questions and not jumping to any conclusions…..without first…….fully reading the whole ammendment language! THE SKY IS NOT FALLING!! This is very serious …..under the present system…..NO ELECTION JUDGE HAS EVER……ASKED FOR MY I.D…..and they do not know me…..and I have never witnessed them asking for a I.D. from anyone else either…..except, if you are registering the same day as the voting takes place! Even then, the judges only ask for a utility bill…..not a photo I.D. from the same day registers. They should show a photo I.D. to prove they are ….who they say they are! Ideally, the photo I.D…..should have a bar code that gets scanned into the system, and the photo is verified….once it is scanned in, and the voters ballot is turned in…..that photo I.D. that matches…..cannot be scanned in again till the next election…..to prevent multiple precinct votes…..or in different states, because of being away at school etc ( and the use of mail-in ballots or absentee ballots….back in their home area! Nothing difficult about this…..this only ensures the integrity of the vote! If you are LEGAL to vote…..you have NOT lost your right to vote………PERIOD! So, please…..do not read into something….. that is not there!
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so if this amendment passes we are going to repeal the 10 year felony sentence for voter fraud right?? The law is not needed if this amendment does what the right claims it will do.
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It is taking away people’s right to vote. Women who are recently married are much more likely to NOT have a photo ID with their current name. They will be required to cast a provisional ballot, and then come back later with the “proper” ID.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanne-bamberger/women-voters-photo-ids_b_1724173.html
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while i agree the ammendment has many bad consequences one of them is not the fact that anyone that is legal will have their vote taken away. However when you put barriers (monetary, time, travel) in the way just in order to vote that is voter suppression and is just plain wrong, not to mention their is no plan to help people pay for birth certiifcates, naturalization papers or passports which would be needed for many to get the new id. I wonder how much i will have to pay to vote in 30 years if this passes.
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If you are unable to travel back to verify your vote with a photo ID after you fill out a ballot, your ballot will not be counted. That is clear in the language we are voting on.
Since many would be in that position under the voting system we have in place today–snowbirds physically out of state come election day, military kids overseas–hunters up at deer camp, kids away at college–their votes are effectively prevented from being counted. If they do their part today, their votes can be counted. If this passes, they won’t be counted in the future.
That to me is voter suppression. I suppose you could claim the military could fly home the young soldier from Afghanistan to Duluth in time to verify his mailed in ballot, or grandma Jones could fly back from Florida to show her photo ID–but I would not say that theoretical ability makes it easy to do so!
This is just very wrong on so many levels.
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If this law truly affects absentee voting in the way you are describing, then the legislators who authored this bill need to go back to the drawing board.
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That’s the problem in a nutshell. IF the legislation passes, there is no going back to the drawing board. It’s written in stone…as is.
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I should add that women who are recently married are much more likely to NOT have a photo ID with their current name AND ADDRESS. If you recently moved, and your picture ID is not updated for the new address, it could make it a pain to vote.
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This never occurred to me until now, but Quarter Pounder and other partisans who support voter ID will rue the day it passes when they found out what it really does with the college student vote.
You see, the majority of college students who are from out of town will no longer be able to vote for candidates in their hometown polls. That’s because absentee ballots will not be counted unless the voter physically travels to the election headquarters and presents their photo ID to election officials to verify themselves.
For duluth–that will mean thousands of new voters–college kids who formerly would have voted in the twin cities, st. cloud, brainerd, rochester–or other distant locales–but now find they can’t. Thousands of new college age kid votes. Care to guess who they will be most likely to support at the polls?
College towns will really see a huge change if this passes!
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I think there may be another group of un-intended consequences with this one.
If, as some here have stated, older people are naturally going to be more conservative/GOP and the people in nursing homes get negatively impacted by this, they’ll be cutting as deeply into their own base as their opponents.
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i can not buy a gun without a id
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Is there some kind of relationship between purchasing something and voting?
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its my right to own a gun
why should i have to prove who i say i am
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Still missing your point.
You seem to be saying two different things here.
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actually you can just go to a gun show or have a buddy of yours buy one with their id and just purchase it from him lol…might not be illegal but you can do it (as many others now do)
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*might not be legal* my apologies.
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Levi…..just more ways to circumvent the system……now….apply those same kind of thoughts to the voting system in place now…..do you now see how easy it is to circumvent or cheat the system? Probably not…..but, at any rate….the cleaner the election….the better! Voting is too important in our country to be violated with all these little ways to circumvent and disrupt integrity in the voting process!
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Yea, because we all know how often people sell their ballot cards to their friends.
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why do i need a id for buying a gun?
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You need an ID to buy a gun so you can prove you aren’t a convicted felon. Felons aren’t allowed to purchase guns.
Of course, felons aren’t allowed to vote either, unless they’ve had their civil rights restored but….this bill does absolutely nothing to address that issue…the ONLY kind of illegal voting that’s been found in MN.
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If you believe that Bush had undeniable proof of WMD, the terrorist warning alert system was real and not a tool used to manipulate support for going to war, believed that duck tape and plastic would protect you from a biologicial nuclear device, believed Al-Queda even has the sophistication to deal with nuclear devices, think tax cuts to the wealthy spurs the economy and creates jobs, think those needing government assistance are just lazy, think Republicans always shrink the government and Democrats increase size of government, think Republicans are better for economy and dealing with budgets and deficits, that too many government regulations and unions are the real problems with our stalled economy, that Obama is responsible for the 5.1 trillion in bailouts that Bush and Paulson pushed for, think that Obama wasn’t born here and/or think he’s a Muslim, that marijuana destroys ambition and makes one homicidal and suicidal and that putting kids in prison for lengthy sentences and branding them felons isn’t ruining their lives and that someone granting gays equal legal rights will someone end heterosexuals from wanting to marry and that with 15 million more registered Democratic voters then Repubs that Dems only way to win an election is to cheat….
Then naturally…that dead people are voting and we need a solution for a problem nobody can prove exists to prevent dead people from voting…would make complete sense to you.
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oops..should read…”will some HOW end heterosexuals from wanting to marry “
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Voter ID is a non-issue… coming from the party of non-issues: Abortion, gay-rights, “culture wars”, the debt ceiling, Obama’s birth certificate, Obama’s religion, and now voter ID. When are people going to wake up and stop letting the radical right steer the debate in this country. None of this is doing anything to help the United States.
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Another waste of tax payer money…big government republicans are continuing to force government regulations on us. If you want a smaller, more effective government, Vote Democrat.
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