Kiffmeyer vows to continue fight for photo ID

State Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer, the chief advocate of the photo ID constitutional amendment that was defeated by voters, says the issue is far from dead. The Big Lake Republican and former Minnesota secretary of state intends to press for it in the Legislature. She was elected to the state Senate on Tuesday. Kiffmeyer says the measure was defeated because of "misinformation" spread by critics.

Author:
BMTN Staff
Updated:
Mar 8, 2018
Original:
Nov 8, 2012

Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer, the chief advocate of the photo ID constitutional amendment that was defeated by voters, says the issue is far from dead. The Big Lake Republican and former Minnesota secretary of state intends to press for it in the Legislature, the Star Tribune reports. She was elected to the state Senate on Tuesday.

Kiffmeyer also says she plans to pursue the issue with Gov. Mark Dayton, the newspaper reports.

Kiffmeyer says the measure was defeated because of "misinformation" spread by critics, MPR reports. "I think it was a combination of a lot of money, and targeting and just plain plugging away at saying the same inaccurate statements again and again in regards to cost," Kiffmeyer told MPR for a story that examines how the voter ID amendment failed.

The measure was widely expected to pass, and polls during the campaign season showed it had the majority support it needed, until a KSTP/SurveyUSA poll just before the election showed the vote evenly split.

Kiffmeyer sponsored the amendment in the House, and helped lead the campaign to get it passed. She clashed with critics in a number of debates before the vote.

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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.

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.

Our Vote Our Future, a coalition of groups that opposes the proposed photo ID constitutional amendment, has begun running a 30-second TV spot featuring Democrat Joan Growe, who was Minnesota's Secretary of State from 1975 to 1999, the Star Tribune reports.

A group opposed to the Voter ID Constitutional amendment Minnesotans will vote on in November estimates changes required by the amendment would cost state and local governments at least $33 million and possibly twice that amount. The Center For Election Integrity Minnesota says individual Minnesotans could spend a similar amount assembling the documents needed to qualify for state-issued IDs.

The lawsuit by groups trying to block a proposed constitutional amendment requiring voters to show photo ID is running into opposition from the state's Republican leaders. Senate Majority Leader David Senjem said he and his GOP colleagues "intend to protect the right of citizens to vote on this important issue of election integrity."

The Minnesota Supreme Court is going to have a busy day July 31. The court Friday scheduled a case that seeks to undo Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's chosen title for the photo ID constitutional amendment the Legislature put on the November ballot. The other, previously scheduled, is for arguments over a nearly identical protest over Ritchie's title for the amendment to ban same sex marriage.

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie is changing the title of the constitutional amendment to “Changes to in-person & absentee voting & voter registration; provisional ballots." Sponsors of the measure, seeking to require voters to show a photo ID before casting a ballot, want the question titled "Photo Identification Required for Voting." Ritchie is being sued for changing the title on the marriage amendment question.

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.

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