Post in Photo Id petition drive stepping up in Saint Paul

2010 May 21 16:50 UTC

First of all, I fail to understand what health care and the upcoming nurses
strike has to do with photo ID. They are two completely separate issues. I
hope that as a legislator Mr. Delton will think more logically than this.

Secondly, I have repeatedly asked Mr. Delton and his Republican Voter ID
cohorts where is the evidence that voter photo ID is even needed. Since the
2008 re-election, they, lead by a group called Minnesota Majority, have
repeated talked about a study showing that some 400,000 voting records did
not match. That number has also been 16,000 or 60,000 depending on the day,
or who is posting.

This group, including Republican Gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, went so
far as to sue Secretary of State Mark Ritchie for allegedly not following
state law.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/46384897.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUjc8LDyiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

At the time the Secretary of State was sued, the Strib reported, "He
(Ritchie) said the goal was to match voter registration and the certified
canvassing board totals within 1,000 names. "You'll never get a perfect
correlation between the two," he said. "We were at 40,000 in April. We're at
about 30,000 now."

Supporters of Photo ID, keep taking this one quote by Ritchie out of
context, and using it to say that Ritchie admitted that 40,000 people voted
in 2008 who shouldn't have.

However the Majority Majority Report that allegedly showed 400,000 errors in
state voting records had significant problems of its own.

"Ritchie said he didn't know why some counties turned up with zero
registered voters in Minnesota Majority's report. "Their number is so far
different from the actual number in the database that it's not possible for
me to speak to it," he said.

Aitkin County was listed in the report as having zero registered voters and
9,455 certified ballots. But Auditor Kirk Peysar said his county had
reported its registered voters and that the number matched the ballots."

In St. Louis County, Elections Director Paul Tynjala said the county's
results also were up to date. "I have no idea why they wouldn't show up," he
said.

Minnesota Majority's research showed the county, a DFL stronghold, with
119,435 certified ballots and zero registered voters posted in the system.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/46384897.html?page=2&c=y

Minnesota Majority's and the Republican lawsuit, which was based on this
flawed "study" and is now the basis for the photo ID push, was quickly
dismissed by Minnesota Supreme Court.

Supreme court rejects MN Majority case against
Ritchie<http://minnesotaindependent.com/40178/supreme-court-rejects-mn-majority-case-against-ritchie>

"(T)he court said the plaintiffs neither describe nor identify any wrongful
acts, omissions or errors of respondents concerning a specific election as
required by Minnesota statute. It added that they requested no relief
specific to the 2008 election, noting that even if they had tied it to the
election, the window for contesting the election has passed."

http://minnesotaindependent.com/40178/supreme-court-rejects-mn-majority-case-against-ritchie

If we go to the Saint Paul Photo ID site,

http://stpaulphotoid.com/

and click on the tab: "Why do we need to require Photo ID?",

it links to the discredited Minnesota Majority "study".

Why do we need to require Photo ID?  [image:
PDF]<http://stpaulphotoid.com/index.php?view=article&id=19%3Awhyphotoid&format=pdf&option=com_content&Itemid=35>
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Print]<http://stpaulphotoid.com/index.php?view=article&id=19%3Awhyphotoid&tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page=&option=com_content&Itemid=35>
 [image:
E-mail]<http://stpaulphotoid.com/index.php?option=com_mailto&tmpl=component&link=aHR0cDovL3N0cGF1bHBob3RvaWQuY29tL2luZGV4LnBocD9vcHRpb249Y29tX2NvbnRlbnQmdmlldz1hcnRpY2xlJmlkPTE5OndoeXBob3RvaWQmSXRlbWlkPTM1>
  Written by Administrator
  Saturday, 27 March 2010 23:21

People often ask "Why do we need to require a photo ID? Has there been
fraud?"

YES!!!

There have been multiple cases of fraud and attempted fraud in Minnesota and
nationwide.

Here is just one source:

http://www.minnesotamajority.org/TheIssues/ElectionIntegrity/tabid/188/Default.aspx

However, even on their own website, Minnesota Majority, does not post their
"study".

Apparently their methodology and facts are so flawed, they know if they
actually posted their data, it would show that their claims do not hold
water.

Once again, I ask Mr. Delton, where are your facts, where is your data, of
any fraudulent voting in Saint Paul that there is the need for a photo ID
requirement for voters.

Dann Dobson
Summit Hill