A constitutional amendment to require voters to show photo identification at the polls likely is heading for a lengthy partisan debate and a vote in the Minnesota House on Tuesday night, March 20.
The House Rules Committee passed the Republican-backed amendment Monday on a 13-10 party-line vote with all Republicans voting for it. A similar measure is pending in the Senate Rules Committee.
If the House and Senate pass the amendment, voters would decide in the November general election whether to add it to the state constitution.
Governors cannot veto amendments proposed by a majority of the Legislature, so Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton would be powerless to stop the GOP initiative. He vetoed a Republican photo ID bill last year.
Voter ID has been one of the hottest issues in legislatures across the country. Republicans passionately support a photo ID requirement, arguing it is needed to ensure the integrity of elections.
Democrats are equally adamant in opposing the measure. They contend voter impersonation is not a problem in Minnesota and say the proposed ID requirement would disenfranchise voters who are most likely to lack photo IDs, such as seniors, college students and racial minorities.
“This amendment will not disenfranchise a single voter,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, said during the Rules Committee hearing.
Her bill would require the state to provide photo IDs to eligible voters at no charge. It also would allow voters who lack a government-issued ID to cast a “provisional ballot” that would be counted only after their identities were verified.
Committee Democrats asked the GOP majority to delay voting on the amendment until after lawmakers consider an alternative, an electronic “poll book” proposed by DFL Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. It would allow voters who don’t carry a photo ID to have their electronic information pulled up from state records or have a photo taken at a polling place.
Rep. Kim Norton, DFL-Rochester, contended poll books would protect eligible voters from being disenfranchised.
But Kiffmeyer, a former secretary of state, said poll books alone would not guarantee that voters are who they say they are.
Democrats argued against inserting political policy in the constitution.
“Constitutional amendments ought to be bipartisan. This one is very partisan,” said Rep. John Benson, DFL-Minnetonka.
