Politics & Government

Eagan Legislators Back Voter ID Amendment

The controversial constitutional amendment has ignited a partisan battle at the Capitol.

Minnesota's voting system is "ripe" for fraud and abuse, according to District 38B Rep. Doug Wardlow (R).

Which is why Wardlow has cast his support behind a proposed constitutional amendment that would require Minnesota voters to present valid photo identification before voting in an election. The amendment, SF 1577, was introduced on Jan. 26 by Sen. Scott Newman (R), who represents Minnesota’s 18th Senate district. Under the bill, the state would provide photographic identification to all eligible voters at no charge.

Republican legislators originally submitted a bill requiring voters to present photo IDs during last year's legislative session, but the bill was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Mark Dayton. Dayton, however, has no authority to veto constitutional amendments. If the proposal is passed by the House and Senate this spring, it will be put to the public for a statewide vote in November. Last week, legislators debated the proposal for five hours during a committee meeting.

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Opponents say the new voter ID law discriminates against the poor and homeless, the elderly and college students, and will prevent people from even showing up to the polls.

But Eagan's Republican legislators believe that the amendment will go a long way toward fixing a broken system.

Find out what's happening in Eaganwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“I’m absolutely supportive of it, I think it’s very necessary," Wardlow said. "It deserves to be in the Constitution because voting is a fundamental right and privilege, and we need to protect valid votes from being diluting by fraudulent votes."

District 38 Sen. Ted Daley (R) and District 38A Rep. Diane Anderson are in agreement with Wardlow.

"You have to be really careful when you consider the constitutional amendment approach, it should not be used as a normal legislative process," Daley said. "This is one of those things ... the public deserves to have confidence in the integrity of the election system."

"This is really an issue that the majority of the people in Minnesota support, and we tried to work with Governor Dayton so that he wouldn’t veto the bill," said Anderson, who cited Star Tribune poll findings showing that 80 percent of respondents favored the voter ID requirement.

"This is not something we’re doing to restrict people from voting," Anderson said. "The focus on voter ID is to make sure we have integrity in the election process."

 


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