| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"GW *AWOL* Chimpzilla" |
| Date: |
26 Oct 2004 01:59:12 PM |
| Object: |
MN GOP Secretary of State Honing The Art of Voter Suppression |
Minnesota's Republican Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer hones the art of vote
suppression
Multiple stories here - trying to reduce voter registration by
Democratic-leaning groups, attempting to eliminate Independence Party candidate
(running against GOP platform), rushing to use untested and unreliable voter
registration system, issuing posters near voting booths warning of terrorists,
placing highly misleading notices near driver's license stations that the voter
registration deadline is past, etc. Hey, you can't blame her for not trying to
catch up with her party colleagues nationwide!
This report in MNPolitics:
Minnesota Secretary of State, Republican Mary Kiffmeyer, has been criticized
frequently over the years by state Democrats but the critical fire burned much
brighter last week.
State Democrats have been suspicious of Kiffmeyer virtually since she was
elected in 1998. Upon taking office, she made the previously civil service
Elections Director position a political appointment. In 2003, Kiffmeyer
dismissed her own director of elections, because, the former director says, he
invited both Democratic and Repulbican legislators to a presentation on new
voting machines when Kiffmeyer wanted just the Republicans invited. Kiffmeyer's
office disuptes the truth of the allegation.
But now it's not just Democrats who are complaining.
Most recently, it has been many of the state's own county auditors who have
complained that Kiffmeyer is moving to quickly to install a new voter
registration system that is still plagued by problems a month before the
election and that they system has not been adequately tested. The system is too
slow to handle the enormous volume of new voter registrations (the Pioneer
Press reports that the number of registered Minnesota voters jumped by 56,691
since the June 18 primary) and that the system logs people off, wiping out
previously entered data. Critics fear that could result in some voters being
turned away at the polls this year. Kiffmeyer is also being criticized for not
requesting a waive to postpone the federally-mandated systems until after
November, as forty other states have done.
Kiffmeyer also came under fire last week when her office turned away grassroots
anti-Bush or pro-Democrat groups requesting voter registration forms for
door-to-door voter registration campaigns, saying they ran out of the forms.
The Secretary of State's office said that they had run low, but not out, and
that the confusion was the result of bad information given by a worker at the
election office counter.
Two weeks ago, Kiffmeyer and the Democratic Attorney General Mike Hatch agreed
that according to an obscure state law that most people thought had been
repealed, Independence Party (IP) candidates should be disqualified from the
general election ballot because they did not enough votes during the primaries.
The Minnesota Supreme Court recently ruled that the IP candidates could be on
the ballot.
Her attempt to keep IP candidates, coupled with other actions, elicited a
scathing op-ed piece in the Star Tribune by former U.S. Congressman and IP
gubernatorial candidate Tim Penny, who said that "ruling against the
Independence Party was only the latest in a long list of curious actions taken
by her office."
The list of other things for which Kiffmeyer has been criticized is long. They
include:
She tried to change the voter identification process to require an exact match
between the information provided by a voter on their registration form and the
information displayed on the voter's valid identification rather than leaving
voter verification to the discretion of the election judge, as had previously
been the case. Critics said the exact match would suppress voter turnout.
County officials filed a formal complaint, saying the system would be
unworkable, and an administrative law judge agreed with them, keeping Kiffmeyer
from implementing the system.
Prior to the primary, she distributed posters to be posted near voting booths
that warned voters to be on the lookout for terrorists, which critics said was
alarmist.
She tried to keep an unorthodox Republican congressional candidate off the
ballot. The Minnesota Supreme Court overruled her decision.
She told the newsweekly City Pages that a voter registration contest they were
conducting might violate federal election laws.
Here's the latest, via Village Voice:
State officials moved Friday to replace notices at more than 200 driver's
license examining stations and vehicle tab agencies throughout Minnesota that
they said could discourage people from voting.
"It is too late to register for the November 2, 2004, General Election," the
notices say under the headline "Important Voter Registration Information."
The notices apparently have been posted since an Oct. 12 deadline for "motor
voter" registration -- automatically signing up to vote along with an
application for a driver's license or state identification card. But
prospective voters still can register at the offices of county auditors or the
secretary of state or at the polls on Nov. 2.
"We're getting it changed," state Division of Driver and Vehicle Services
spokeswoman Susan Lasley said. "It kind of implies the wrong thing." She said
she did not know how the mistake was made or by whom.
A new version of the notice specifies that "It is too late to register to vote
on your DL or ID card application."
Both notices add: "If you apply for your DL or ID card today, your name will not
appear on this year's voter roster," although that does not preclude
registering by other means.
The notices also refer prospective voters to the secretary of state's office.
Kent Kaiser, spokesman for Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, said she did not
issue either of the notices. But Pat McCormack, director of driver and vehicle
services, said the information came from Kiffmeyer's office.
"Some people were misreading it," McCormack said. "If they ask us about it, we
tell them to check with their county auditor or the secretary of state."
http://vote2004.eriposte.com/swingstates/minnesota.htm#MINNESOTA
--
"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas -- that says, fool
me once, shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."
http://www.diymedia.net/audio/mp3/tdntb-bushwack2.mp3
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