If Minnesotans who work to preserve voting rights think they had it rough defeating the voter restriction amendment last year, they should count their blessings.
At least we're not North Dakota.
In today's Grand Forks Herald, North Dakota state senator Marie Strinden (D-Grand Forks) writes in There is no voter fraud, just vote suppression:
Some Republicans in the House have introduced a suite of disenfranchising bills under the guise of fixing North Dakota’s “voter fraud problem,” despite North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger and the Burleigh and Cass County auditors testifying that there is almost no voter fraud — and maybe even none at all — in North Dakota. . . .
But the worst bill is not a bill at all. Rep. Randy Boehning, R-Fargo, completely replaced his own HB 1332 with a “hog house” amendment (so-called because the first time an amendment supplanted a bill, the subject had to do with pigsties) that would get rid of voter affidavits and require ALL voters to show ID, both at the polls and for absentee voting. . . .
. . .Getting rid of affidavit voting and requiring absentee voters to have state-issued ID’s would be the biggest change in North Dakota election policy since the Legislature granted “no excuse” absentee voting and maybe the greatest step backward in North Dakota voting accessibility ever.
The public has not had a chance to weigh in on the potential changes because the new HB 1332 technically is an amendment. Only bills get public hearings — not amendments.
Heckova way to foist photo ID on North Dakota voters. Read the rest for all the gory details.
Photo: The State Capitol that Matt Dean loves to hate, in Bismarck, North Dakota.
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