It's easy to overlook how quickly the calendar pages flip over on the open registration period. This year, the closing dates for open registration are on Tuesday, August 18 prior to the primary election on Tuesday, September 14 and again on Tuesday, October 12 prior to the general election on Tuesday, November 2. Once these deadlines come into play, no one can register to vote until the very election day involved.
There are further stumbling blocks: a significant difference of opinion between the Minnesota Secretary of State and the Hennepin County Auditor over the proper handling of proof of identity mandated by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) - for voter registration applications that are mailed in during the open registration periods - may well lead to a procedural logjam at the polls. Newly enfranchised voters will be well advised to bring a photo id or other recognized proof of identity (a current utility bill with the voter's name and home address works well) in the event that such proof of identity is required before the voter can receive a ballot on election day. The City of Minneapolis Election Bureau is advising the general public to sidestep this vexatious issue by bringing applications to their office in City Hall by hand or by bringing their applications to the City's government partners by hand: "Our office recommends in-person, in-person, in-person. We are telling people to turn in their voter registration applications at our office or to one of our government partners, i.e. libraries, park buildings, fire stations, police precincts so that we will receive it through inter-office mail. This is a way around the id problem." This from Dani Connors-Smith, Program Assistant, Minneapolis Elections (612) 673-3857. Of course, one may register on election day itself and the ability of a registered voter to vouch for the identity of an individual who lives in the same precinct is very helpful here. But - and it's a big but - there will be perhaps a thousand people wanting to register by this method in Whittier and Stevens Square alone and that number viewed citywide will be very large indeed. Both of the above bottlenecks are very real and will mean long lines on election day - not so much on the primary day in September, but this will be real problem in November in precinct after precinct. Thus, registering in advance in an uncontroversial manner and even thinking seriously about absentee voting (if a given voter can honestly say that he or she will not be able to vote in person on election day - and that's not so unlikely for people who work or have children or have mobility challenges) fall squarely in the ounce of prevention department. BTW, the City of Minneapolis will also be conducting an election process for the children in the K-12 system such that the young'uns will tentatively be permitted to vote at the various precincts from 7-9:30 and from 2:00 on, adding another busy component to already overcrowded conditions. The kids will vote separately, not on the offical optical scanners, and their votes will be collected and counted at a central location. The people traffic will inevitably be memorable on November 2, 2004. Fredric Markus, West Phillips Minneapolis Redistricting Commissioner (until the federal judge says otherwise!) 2523 Portland Ave. #1210 REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
