House passes primary election bill
The House passed the primary election bill today that moves the state primary from September to the second Tuesday in August.
A key point of the legislation is to allow military people serving overseas more time to cast absentee ballots.
While one Republican praised the House for its civil debate on the primary election bill, one issue that raised the temperature a degree or two was a photo ID amendment offered by Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Delano.
The provision would have required photo identification to vote in Minnesota — an exception was provided for those with religious objections of being photographed.
“We’ve all been at this movie before,” said Rep. Steve Simon, DFL-St. Louis Park, of the the often voted-on provision.
“We require more integrity when people go to rent a movie (than when voting),” replied Emmer.
The amendment failed on a 58 to 73 vote.
Area lawmakers voting in favor: Abeler, Anderson, B., Buesgens, Davids, Dean, Dettmer, Dittrich, Eastlund, Emmer, Garofalo, Hackbarth, Holberg, Kiffmeyer, Lenczewski, Mack, Obermueller, Peppin, Sanders, Scott, Sterner, Zellers.
Voting against: Doty, Gardner, Hansen, Hortman, Jackson, Kalin, Masin, Morgan, Newton, and Tillberry.
