The Real Reason Coleman's Party is Worried.

This letter to the Star Tribune from a election judge  gets closer to gist of the senate vote recount than all the rehashing of various charges being thrown around in the rest of the paper. [Emphasis mine.]

Kudos to Jeff Davis ("Why is it easier to vote here than it is to register a boat?" Nov. 9) for the luxury to be able to afford and register a boat and to haul it around in his SUV. As a Ramsey County Registration election judge over the past five years, I have seen firsthand the challenges in providing the necessary documents to register to vote.

Lack of even the $18 to change an address on a state ID, or the fact that renters do not receive an electric or water bill, make the voucher system a savior for those who wish to partake in their democratic right.

Economic hardship and unstable residency should not prohibit someone from having his or her equal say in the election process. I am proud to live in a state that works hard to assure the right to vote to all eligible citizens.

BETHANY WHITEHEAD, ST. PAUL

I happen to know a young couple who, through no fault of their own, had three different residences between September 1 and election day. If they had shown up in their new precinct to vote, three days after they moved in, they would have nothing to show they were properly there.

They work three jobs between them. After paying rent and a damage deposit at their new place and moving in, they certainly didn't have the time or the $36 to go change their driver's licenses before the election.

I honestly don't know who they might've voted for, but I can imagine who Jeff Davis, Michael Brodkorb and Fritz Knaak were worried about them voting for.

The voter fraud issue is a smokescreen set up by a party that knows the working poor and the elderly are dangerous because they are likely to vote for candidates who stand up for their interests.

Sadly, the number of these voters is going to grow. If Republicans focused on helping them, maybe they wouldn't have to be so concerned about suppressing their votes.

Comments

[Mike Keliher]

I often find myself torn right in half on this issue.

The first half (whose status as first implies nothing other than its sequence in this particular writing) is all for making voting registration and verification as easy and barrier-free as is possible. Surely, same-day registration has saved this guy more than a few headaches.

The second half, though, occasionally worries not that the process is too free and easy but that the methods for finding and correcting problems -- intentionally committed or otherwise -- aren't sufficient. That is, I'm all for openness and access, as long as its equally as free and easy for honest, well-intentioned judges and observers to rectify registrations and votes gone wrong.

This might sounds as though I'm simply in the "tighten the process" camp, but I really don't intend for that. I guess I'm just looking for some reassurance that the flexibility of voter registration isn't abused.

[charlieq]

Mike, to a point I'm with you. I don't want the driver's license system or the auto insurance system or the fishing license system or the tax filing system or the parole system or the restraining order system or the Target exchange system pr any of the other systems abused.

But when you look at the likelihood, the frequency and the consequences of abuse, voter abuse is way down on the scale. We give people the benefit of the doubt in a free society, and that's the way I like it.

[Mike Keliher]

Fair enough. Innocent until proven guilty and whatnot. I've heard that somewhere before...