I wish to thank this paper for urging voters to vote no on the voter ID amendment. The paper listed a number of reasons for their decision, not the least of which is this amendment is not needed. Nationally, something like 13 cases of voter fraud have been found in the last 10 years. These cases were found by the George W. Bush administration, hardly a left-wing group. Most of these cases as the paper noted were former incarcerated individuals who paid their debt to society and thought they were then eligible to vote. The so-called voter fraud is not because of “loads of immigrants being bused in to vote” as the fear mongers would like us to believe.

Although proponents of the voter ID law say the new ID will cost applicants nothing, the law will cost counties enormous sums (just ask the auditor of Steele County, who recently announced this law could cost her county conservatively $100,000) at a time when counties are cutting services because of cuts to local government aid. These cuts in LGA have caused cities and counties to weigh cuts in required services or to raise taxes (something the Republicans have vowed they would never do). We can thank Republican legislators like Rich Murray for these cuts, despite the lying fliers some unknown groups have been sending out saying he supports schools and has worked to save jobs. Just go to MPR.org and search on Murray’s votes which will tell you a different story.

The Republican Legislature relinquished their duty of passing laws the old-fashioned way by getting consensus to issue new laws. Republicans took the easy path to get laws passed by dumping their duty back on the voters — what did we elect them for if we have to do their jobs for them. Not only did both amendments not receive bipartisan support but would not be signed by Gov. Mark Dayton.

We must urge our soon-to-be-elected legislators to work across party lines to reach consensus that would benefit all Minnesotans not just the privileged few. Shannon Savick will do whatever she can to pay back the school funds the republicans have been “borrowing” from our schools and to restore the homestead tax credit that the republicans eliminated in the last session. Stop the “my way or the highway” technique of the republicans; vote for Shannon Savick for state representative and no on both amendments to the constitution on Nov. 6.

 

Patti Kimble

Emmons