The measure advanced through a House committee on a party-line vote Monday. If the House and Senate pass the proposal, then voters in the November election will decide whether to amend the state constitution to require that all would-be voters present a photo ID before they cast a ballot.

Minnesota's reputation as a squeaky-clean state is under attack. The Minnesota Majority, a conservative group that has campaigned for a strict photo ID requirement, put up a billboard near Elk River that says Minnesota is "number one" in voting fraud. Meanwhile, groups on both sides of the issue are plotting strategy in the run-up to the vote.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota is offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who can find a case of voter impersonation in the state during the last ten years. The group opposes the effort to put a voter ID requirement on Minnesota's ballot. Backers of the idea say it will reduce voter fraud. But the ACLU argues fraud is not a problem here.

In a shocking upset, the voter ID amendment has failed, and by a sizable margin. With 98 percent of precincts reporting, the "no" votes led by nearly 8 percentage points, MPR says. The measure would have amended the state constitution to require voters to bring photo IDs to the polls.

Estimates of how much it will cost to implement a voter ID requirement at Minnesota polling places range from a few million dollars to $100 million. The cost is among many details that state lawmakers will need to fill in if residents approve a Constitutional amendment requiring a government-issued ID to vote.

Planned Parenthood has thrown its weight behind efforts to defeat the ballot measures that seek to ban gay marriage and require voters to bring photo ID to polling places. The two measures are important to the people Planned Parenthood works with, MPR reports.

Two new Minnesota Polls by the Star Tribune find a statistical dead head in the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, but a slight edge for support of a constitutional change that would require voters to show a government-issued photo ID.

Passage of the voter ID constitutional amendment next month would require Minnesotans to bring a government-issued photo identification to the polls when they vote, beginning in 2013. But the devil is in the details. The Pioneer Press reports that critics say the specifics still aren't clear – what kind of ID, what happens if you don’t have one, how much it would cost and who pays? The 2013 Legislature could be left to sort it out.