Our

Vote Our Future For Immediate Release Contact: Greta Bergstrom, 651-336-6722, greta@ourvoteourfuture.org or Eric Fought, 612-223-4744, eric@ourvoteourfuture.org

In 2011 billed passed by the Legislature and vetoed by Governor Dayton, Military IDs were excluded ST. PAUL (October 14, 2012) Our Vote Our Future, the official statewide campaign to defeat the Voter Restriction Amendment issued the following statement from Communications Director Eric Fought: The 87th Legislature passed two bills related to voting and elections in Minnesota. In 2011, S.F. 509, a voter restriction bill also authored by State Representative Mary Kiffmeyer in the House, expressly did not include military IDs as a valid form of identification for the purposes of a photo ID requirement. When the Legislature passed the Voter Restriction Amendment, whose chief author was also Rep. Kiffmeyer in the House, it failed to exempt military service members from the requirements of the amendment. Other states that have passed this requirement including Alabama, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin saw fit to safeguard the rights of active-duty military. If it were obvious that their rights were safeguarded under federal law, why did these states take the step of explicitly exempting them? And why did the Legislature in Minnesota fail to? Supporters of the Voter Restriction Amendment are asking Minnesotans to trust them: pass this amendment with no specifics, and well fill in the details later. But these are the same people who in 2011 and 2012, expressly failed to safeguard the rights of active-duty military to vote. There are too many unanswered questions in this poorly-written amendment. Minnesotans will respond by voting no and sending this ill-conceived amendment back to the Legislature to get it right. ### Our Vote Our Future is the statewide multi-partisan campaign to defeat the voter restriction amendment that will appear on Minnesotas November 6, 2012 general election ballot. For more information, please visit www.OurVoteOurFuture.org or follow @OurVoteMN.

Our Vote Our Future Statement on Minnesota Majority Complaint