From Kate:

What does “free” mean to you? Does it mean costing our state millions of dollars when we’re already stretched financially?

Does “reducing spending” and “no new taxes” bring about thoughts of middle-class Minnesotans reaching into their nearly empty wallets for a solution that can’t seem to find its problem?

Didn’t think so. Voter ID does, though!

I guess Republicans in the legislature have a different dictionary. According to these folks, we can all get “free” state-issued identification cards in order to vote–the catch is that these “free” ID cards? They’re not actually free. At a time when we are all aware that money is tight, it really doesn’t feel like Republians in favor of the Voter ID bill are looking out for us.

It must be really tiring to try and justify Voter ID when the alleged “voter impersonation” simply hasn’t happened. There have been very FEW convictions of felon voting in our state, but this bill won’t tackle that issue either. Since this bill asks for a driver’s license with a current address to verify identity, people convicted of felonies could still vote, even though they don’t legally have that right.

On the other hand, people (we’re talking hundreds of thousands) who DO have that right will have to get over some pretty serious hurdles in order to exercise their right. This is the bottom line, friends.

Voter ID may be a solution to a problem SOMEWHERE in this great big world, but we simply can’t find it. Can we really justify spending millions of dollars to simply make it harder for law-abiding Minnesotans to vote?

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