By Bill Salisbury
Published February 8th 2007 in Pioneer Press
Minnesotans with a driver's license or a state identification card
would be automatically registered to vote under legislation Secretary
of State Mark Ritchie proposed Wednesday. Ritchie said the registration
would be fast and convenient and would eliminate hassles for citizens.
It also would cut data-entry costs for counties and reduce clerical
errors.
Ritchie's legislative liaison, Beth Fraser, predicted about 500,000 Minnesotans who are eligible but not registered to vote would be signed up under the measure. She estimated it would cut the number of Election Day registrations in half.
The same bill would automatically change a voter's address any time a person files a change-of-address form with the U.S. Postal Service.
Under current law, voters must re-register every time they move.
Ritchie said the automatic updating of voter addresses would reduce the bureaucratic bothers involved in moving, shorten lines at polling places and save local governments money.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.