Reply #58: They wanted to try it here in MN - Sec. of State got smacked down

[Morning Dew]

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/9220561.htm?1c


<snip>

A Minnesota administrative law judge on Thursday rejected controversial voter registration rules proposed by Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer that local election officials feared could have disenfranchised potential first-time voters.

Judge George Beck issued the order just hours after several local election officials and groups promoting voting testified at a legislative hearing that the proposed voter registration rules would discourage some first-time voters who go to the polls on Election Day from casting ballots.

One proposed rule would have required an "exact match" between the data an applicant submitted on a voter registration application and the information on that person's driver's license or state identification card.

County auditors objected to the exact-match requirement, contending it would prevent them from completing the registrations of voters whose identities they could confirm in other ways. They argued it would have blocked them from registering applicants who, for instance, used their middle initial on one form and their middle name on another, or who transposed two numbers in their 13-digit driver's license number, or whose handwriting was illegible.

<snip>

Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Co. are intent on delivering Minnesota to Bush on 11/2.