The Duluth Human Rights Commission has taken an official stand against the Minnesota voter ID amendment proposal.
The highest estimate of Minnesota voter fraud convictions in the 2008 election: 113, according to Minnesota Majority. The estimated number of legal Minnesota voters who would encounter barriers to voting rights: up to 11 percent, or several hundred thousand, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The math works out overwhelmingly against Minnesota voters.
Supporters of the voter ID amendment often cite the Minnesota Majority report, which indicates the majority of voter fraud is being committed by convicted felons. In that case, it would make more sense to flag a list of ineligible felons.
Proposed changes to the constitution would disproportionately affect the elderly, people of color, younger adults, people who are disabled, and low-income individuals. The amendment also would complicate absentee voters and possibly exclude them.
In addition to disenfranchising Minnesota voters, the cost to enforce such a measure is not justifiable. According to John Kingrey, executive director of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association, voter-fraud investigations already have diverted valuable resources from public safety issues. And he considers the number of convictions as a result of those investigations to be "frivolous." In South Carolina, the cost of implementing Voter ID was estimated at $600,000 to $1.7 million in taxpayer money. Minnesota's population is 665,631 greater, according to the 2011 Census.
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Taxpayers cannot afford to fund such a "solution." It makes no sense for us to adopt a law that not only encumbers voters, but discriminately, as in the pre-civil rights era. Our state constitution is not meant to deprive us of our rights but to ensure we keep them. When we start amending our constitution in ways that disenfranchise citizens, we should all be alarmed, lest our own disenfranchisement be next.
Charisa Homan
Duluth
The writer wrote this on behalf of the Duluth Human Rights Commission.
