The VoTer ID AmenDmenT: An ATTAck on mInnesoTA DemocrAcy

The Voter ID Amendment would make it harder for law-abiding citizens to vote.
The same 1% that created the economic inequality and injustice for the 99% are also attacking our political rights; including our most fundamental rightthe right to vote. The Minnesota Legislature is considering a radical, partisan amendment to the Minnesota Constitution that would change voting from a right of all Minnesotans to a privilege that a government agency can grantor notwith a specific form of ID.

The Voter ID Amendment as proposed would: END ABSENTEE VOTING AND SAME-DAY VOTER REGISTRATION AS WE KNOW IT.
DENY THE VOTE TO OUR TROOPS. Military IDs are not valid according to the proposed voter ID policy; active-duty soldiers defending our constitutional right to vote overseas may not be able to vote themselves. PREVENT BALLOT ACCESS FOR MINNESOTANS WITHOUT A CURRENT ADDRESS ON THEIR ID. It is estimated that as many as one in 10 eligible voters in America do NOT have the kind of photo ID the amendment would require.1 Thats hundreds of thousands of voting-age Minnesotans who could be prevented from voting by this radical amendment: 18 percent of elderly citizens do not have government-issued photo ID. 15 percent of people earning less than $35,000 a year do not have photo ID. 18 percent of citizens 1824 years old do not have a government-issued photo ID with their current name and address. 10 percent of voters with disabilities do not have a photo ID. 25 percent of voting-age African American citizens do not have a current, government-issued photo ID.2

Know the Facts about the Voter ID Amendment:

Its INEFFECTIVE: Voter ID laws ONLY prevent voter impersonation, a crime for which NO ONE has ever been convicted in Minnesota.3 Its OVERLY RESTRICTIVE: The photo ID law envisioned for Minnesota would be even more restrictive than South Carolinas, which the Department of Justice has sued to stop from taking effect. Minnesota would become the only state in the country where military IDs and passports could not be used to verify a legitimate voters identity. Its POLITICALLY MOTIVATED: Voter ID is designed intentionally to make it harder for certain Minnesotans to vote: senior citizens, students, low-income and persons of color. Across the country, the Koch Brothers and other corporate forces have orchestrated and funded Voter ID laws to disenfranchise millions of people: African Americans, Latinos, the elderly and people with disabilitiesthe very groups who most need to have a voice and vote in Minnesota.
TakeAction Minnesota - 705 Raymond Ave #100, St Paul, MN 55114 (651) 641-6199 takeactionminnesota.org
1

Citizens without Proof: A Survey of Americans Possession of Documentary Proof of Citizenship and Photo Identification, Brennan Center for Justice, November, 2006. League of Women Voters of Minnesota, http://www.lwvmn.org/Page.aspx?pid=734 Facts about Ineligible Voting and Voter Fraud in Minnesota, Citizens for Election Integrity in Minnesota, Nov. 2010, page 16.

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