"All that is old and already formed can continue to live only if it allows within itself the conditions of a new beginning."
Judge Corrals Kiffmeyer's Ballot Reforms
Posted 9:57 p.m., Aug. 2, 2004
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Two weeks ago, an administrative law judge threw out several overly burdensome voter registration rules proposed by Minnesota's Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, which critics feared would disenfranchise first-time voters.
Kiffmeyer, widely regarded as a staunchly partisan Republican with a penchant for red, white and blue garb, proposed the changes under cover of the federal Help Americans Vote Act (HAVA). They probably would have discouraged new voters--particularly young, poor and inexperienced voters--attempting to register for the first time this year, during what is expected to be most hotly contested and crucially important presidential contest since the Vietnam era.
At least one of them, in fact, still might. Despite the judge's ruling, potentially troublesome issues remain in the run-up to Minnesota's Nov. 2 election.
Radical Reform
Under Minnesota's laudably open ballot-access rules, voters can decide on the day of the election that they want to cast a ballot, and can register on Election Day.
No one has made any moves to change that. But one Kiffmeyer reform, under a new computerized statewide registration program she is forcing through--despite much consternation and worry among county election officials--would have required an "exact match" between information a voter records on forms during the registration process and the information displayed on their valid IDs.
Example: It says "Kevin L. Featherly" on my driver's license. If I were to attempt to register under the name Kevin Featherly, my registration application would be tossed out--it's not an exact match. Or, say I wrote down my driver's license number on a registration form, but juxtaposed two of its 13 digits. I'd be S.O.L. Not an exact match.
Traditionally election judges have had the discretion to determine whether a person is who they say they are when registering to vote, and it's hard to recall that ever being a particular problem before.
Happily, Judge George Beck threw out that provision. According to St. Paul Pioneer Press reporter Bill Salisbury, Beck ruled the secretary must "recognize that verification can be made without an exact match of all data, where election officials still can conclude that the data relates to the same person."
Beck also ruled that Kiffmeyer had no authority to block local election officials from proposing their own voter registration forms. Metro area county election officials particularly complained that a new, uniform statewide form is too complex and invites mistakes by would-be registrants.
However, Kiffmeyer already has rejected requests to use simplified registration forms, and the judge's ruling is not binding on that issue. Kiffmeyer has already indicated she intends to require use of the unwieldy new state form, and simplified alternatives may not be used without her approval.
Still, Kevin Corbid, Washington County's auditor and chief election official, told the Kevblog that the judge's ruling is not toothless, as portrayed in the press. "I think the pressure is that a law judge agreed that a process needed to be there to process alternative forms and that there needed to be a process there for approving them, even if she decides not to approve individual ones," Corbid said.
Spirit of the law
Kiffmeyer moved to impose the reforms after the state Legislature passed a bill to alter Minnesota election laws to reflect mandates of the HAVA laws, which were enacted in response to the Florida election debacle of 2000. Corbid was among those who spearheaded that legislation. Now he admits he has some regrets about that, given how Kiffmeyer has interpreted the direction lawmakers gave her.
County auditors across the state have rebelled at the secretary's dictates. One, long-time Cass County Auditor Sharon K. Anderson published an editorial in the Star Tribune newspaper opining that Kiffmeyer may not be "up to the job."
According to a southern Minnesota election official speaking on background, a Kiffmeyer command that falls beyond the scope of the judge's ruling forces counties to implement a new statewide computerized voter registration system, SVRS (Statewide Voter Registration System) that was written in-house by the Secretary of State's office. It replaces the VEMS (Voter Election Management System).
This is the reform that retains the potential for creating problems during the current election cycle.
Many county auditors expressed concerns about the new system, saying it should not be put in place until it is well tested, preferably in 2005, after the presidential election that is already shaping up to be highly controversial. Several states--including Florida--have adopted paperless, touchscreen, computerized voting from which recounts or other verification will be impossible.
(Minnesota is gradually moving to precinct-by-precinct optical-scan vote tallying, but the controversial paperless touchscreen voting is not currently being considered for the Gopher State.)
But the state's new computerized voter registration system could cause its own problems. It is intended to record voters' activities so that, if someone votes in Hennepin County one year and moves to Ramsey County the next, their voting record will follow them.
However, when the VEMS system was implemented several years ago, it was, the southern Minnesota official said, "a nightmare." In Waseca County, for instance, all election records between 1992 and 1998 were accidentally deleted--lost forever. There is little doubt the new system also will have bugs--and there is not enough time to iron them out.
"We have very valid concerns about going with this system," said the official. "However, it's too late already. We're already into the new system. We've got to make the best of it. But there are parts of it that aren't even working yet, and we need those before the election. We need those really quick.
"There is training going on right now for the absentee ballot module. It needs to be available 30 days before the Sept. 14 primary election. So after training we need to come back here--and it needs to work."
Kiffmeyer's response to such complaints is that "there is no good time" to enact voting reforms. While many county officials agree, they counter that there can be a bad time to push reform--and the present time is a perfect example.
"A certain amount of election activity and system maintenance occurs throughout each year," Anderson wrote in her Star Tribune editorial, "but a competent election expert would easily understand that the installation, testing and training for a new voter registration system needs to be well behind you by the time you are conducting the major election of the two-year cycle."
Benton County Auditor Joan Neyssen said she expects a lot of new registered voters this year, given the gravity of the election. "We're feeling that there is going to be a lot of on-site registration," she said. "And I think that's probably the problem that the larger counties are having is because the new registration form is a little bit of a complex card. And also, I hear the rumor that you need so much identification so that sometimes the people who stop in to vote won't have it all with them."
Obviously, that could disenfranchise some voters, by driving them out of the polling place in frustration.
Art of Listening
Corbid is diplomatic, while still acknowledging that the auditors' goals and Kiffmeyer's demands are not in sync.
"I think that's a reaction to the feeling that she doesn't value our input," he said. "Clearly there's some angst among county auditors about the relationship and the communication out of [Kiffmeyer's] office, and how they keep us involved in making decisions and whether they take any input from us. We think, if you took that input from us on the front end, it would certainly lead to an easier road to get to the outcomes that we eventually got to anyway. "
But he characterizes the controversy as an administrative matter, dismissing speculation that Kiffmeyer might be maneuvering to eliminate new, young and poor voters who are less than likely to vote Republican than established voters, particularly in outstate Minnesota.
"My concerns were really around how the polling places operate," he said. "We need to make sure that the process in place encourages voting, doesn't make the lines any longer than they need to be, doesn't make voters go through extra step to make sure that they are registered.
"And it's kind of our responsibility, as election officials to make sure that the polls run efficiently. And therefore the administrative rules need to reflect that and allow us to get that done."
Agreed. So huzzahs to the administrative law judge who interceded to make that more possible for Minnesotans. But pressure needs to be applied to Secretary Kiffmeyer to do a better job utilizing the expertise of her county election officials, and not plow ahead as if they are not there by unilaterally enacting dangerously ill-timed election reforms.
-- Kevin Featherly
