New law expands paperwork, headaches

The federal Help America Vote Act requires that voters now include their drivers license number, a state identification number, or the last four digits of their Social Security number when they register to vote. Minnesota is handling this requirement by creating a new, red-white-and-blue voter registration form that has blanks for this information.

(Voters who don?t have those numbers still can register; the state instead will supply another identifying number.)

HAVA also requires that Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer cross-reference these numbers with the state?s motor vehicle department and with the federal Social Security Administration to verify the information. The law also requires cross-referencing with state courts to verify whether voters with a criminal conviction have had their voting rights restored.

If the cross-referencing turns up conflicting information, county officials need to contact the voter to clear up the problem.

Seeking more accuracy
Kiffmeyer said the goal is to improve accuracy in the roster of eligible voters. ?At last count, we had 127 Bruce Andersons,? she says. ?It?s sometimes hard to tell which one moved or which one died.?

Basically, Kiffmeyer says, a voter whose registration runs into a problem will be asked to produce an acceptable form of identification to prove they are who they say they are. They can do this in person before the election, send a copy of their ID to their county elections office, or simply bring an acceptable ID with them to the polling place.

?It?s no biggie,? she says. ?People are used to showing identification to cash a check, to buy cigarettes, or to buy liquor. In fact, one of the biggest complaints we receive is that we don?t require identification at the polls.?

Kiffmeyer says voter rosters that election judges use in the polling place on Election Day will indicate which voters need to show identification before they can be issued a ballot.

Counties waiting to send letters
Elections officials in Ramsey, Washington and Dakota counties say they indeed intend to contact voters whose registration runs into problems.

Carol Peterson, elections supervisor in Washington County, said these situations are no different than when voters forget to sign their registration form, or omit their birth date or some other piece of information.

?We typically send a letter to let them know what was wrong, and ask them to correct it before the election. We do our best to clean all that up prior to the election,? she said. ?In the worst-case scenario, they have to show identification when they show up at the polling place.?

However, the state has not yet begun notifying counties which voters have ?incomplete? registrations, according to officials in Ramsey and Dakota counties. It appears that information won?t be sent until after the state converts to its new, centralized voter registration system this June.

Minnesota will not be affected this year by two other requirements of HAVA. The state essentially is exempt from rules requiring provisional ballots, Kiffmeyer says. Also, Minnesota will not be dealing with controversial touch-screen voting systems until at least 2006.

Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org

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