Michael-Carlos Mitchell (@stmichael36)

What's next, Andy Parrish publicly supporting gays who want to marry?

Well, here's a twist -- Minnesota Majority, the paranoid group that led the charge for the failed voter ID amendment, is coming to the defense of an 86-year-old woman who voted twice and has been charged with felony voter fraud.

SEE ALSO: MNGOP Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer blames voter ID failure on "misinformation"

St. Peter resident Margaret Schneiderman voted twice in a primary election last summer. She suffers from dementia and admits she voted twice, but says she simply didn't remember she'd casted an absentee ballot when she voted at her polling place a month later.

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Let's just say McGrath's argument isn't exactly ironclad.

Last month, Minnesota Majority's Dan McGrath took lots of heat for blaming the not-really-that-close defeat of the voter ID amendment on voter fraud, despite not presenting any evidence fraud actually occurred.

SEE ALSO: Minnesota Majority wanted you to follow buses leaving polling places on election day

But McGrath is undeterred. In a WCCO report published last Friday, he offers up what one Minnesota political observer charitably calls a "weasely phrase" while again blaming the demise of voter ID on fraudulent activity of some mysterious sort.

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Had his amendment passed, we doubt McGrath would be crying "voter fraud!"

Minnesota Majority, the main organization pushing the voter ID amendment that was defeated earlier this month, has never been able to cite a case of voter fraud voter ID would've prevented. But that uncomfortable fact isn't stopping Minnesota Majority executive director Dan McGrath from citing voter fraud as one of the main reasons the amendment was supported by only 46 percent of voters.

SEE ALSO: MNGOP Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer blames voter ID failure on "misinformation"

In a post published on the conservative True North blog, McGrath tackles the question of "Why Voter ID Failed." His answers? Money, misinformation, and the thing that gives him night sweats -- voter fraud.

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We're sure Dayton is chomping on the bit to work with Kiffmeyer on a voter ID bill. *sarcasm font*

Electoral experts are in wide agreement -- voter ID is a solution in search of a problem. Yet MNGOPers who rammed the ID constitutional amendment down our throats portrayed voter fraud as an almost existential threat to our democracy.

SEE ALSO:
-- Power Line on Mark Ritchie: "He takes the late German Führer as his forensic model" [VIDEO]
-- New York Times on MN voter ID amendment: Solution to a "virtually non-existent problem"

So it's particularly rich to read MNGOP Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer's rationale for why the amendment failed. She blames it on "the misinformation about it" from opponents, the Star Tribune reports.

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Michael-Carlos Mitchell (@stmichael36)

These voter fraud ads aren't having their desired effect, according to the latest polling.

Voter ID has looked like a sure bet to be approved since it first became clear the amendment would be on this year's ballot -- until this weekend.

MORE VOTER ID COVERAGE:
-- Minnesota Majority wants you to follow buses leaving polling places on election day
-- Majority of MN college students favor voter ID amendment that could disenfranchise 70 percent of them
-- Mike Freeman on GOPers making Franken-Coleman voter fraud allegations: "They are just liars"

The last round of Public Policy Polling's work here in Minnesota this campaign season contains an 11th-hour surprise: Both voter ID and the marriage amendment look set to fail, with both measures trailing by margins comfortably outside the margin of error.


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Michael-Carlos Mitchell (@stmichael36)

This Minneapolis bus stop ad is brought to you by Minnesota Majority's Election Integrity Watch.

In the fall of 2010, Minnesota Majority, the state's leading pro-voter ID group, created the Election Integrity Watch. As a press release published at the time noted, Election Watch "is a program designed to engage voters across the state to be vigilant, watching for and reporting on election fraud."

SEE ALSO:
-- Mike Freeman on GOPers making Franken-Coleman voter fraud allegations: "They are just liars"
-- Majority of MN college students favor voter ID amendment that could disenfranchise 70 percent of them
-- New York Times on MN voter ID amendment: Solution to a "virtually non-existent problem"

But how vigilant is too vigilant? In an email recently sent to subscribers entitled, "What to Watch: Here are some of examples of activities things that may indicate an occurrence of voter fraud," Election Watch asks supporters to pay attention to "Buses arriving at the polling place," asking them to "photograph or video the bus and follow if possible."


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Michael-Carlos Mitchell (@stmichael36)

A Minneapolis bus stop at Central Ave. NE and 35th Ave. NE asks passersby to look out for voter fraud.

In the most recent edition of the New Yorker, Jane Mayer takes a close look at the Republican lawyer who has spearheaded the drive for tighter voter ID laws nationally and here in Minnesota, Hans von Spakovsky.

Along with John Fund, von Spakovsky recently cowrote a book entitled, "Who's Counting?: How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk." One of the books most explosive claims is that voter fraud was the decisive factor in Al Franken's 312-vote triumph over Norm Coleman for one of Minnesota's U.S. Senate seats in the 2008 election.

SEE ALSO:
-- Majority of MN college students favor voter ID amendment that could disenfranchise 70 percent of them
-- New York Times on MN voter ID amendment: Solution to a "virtually non-existent problem"

Mayer got Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman's response that allegation, and suffice it to say he's not a fan of Fund and von Spakovsky's work.

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Either students don't mind making their lives more difficult, or they don't know what they're likely to vote for.

SEE ALSO:
-- Wisconsin veteran ID controversy highlights concerns about MN's voter ID amendment
-- New York Times on MN voter ID amendment: Solution to a "virtually non-existent problem"

Confused about the headline? That's fitting. Because it appears a good portion of Minnesota college students are confused about the proposed voter ID amendment.

According to new polling commissioned by the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG), 53.7 of college students are likely to vote yes on voter ID. But 70.9 percent of students don't have any form of state-issued identification with their current address (assuming college IDs from state schools don't count), meaning they probably wouldn't be able to vote if an ID requirement were already enshrined in state law.

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Ritchie worked himself into a frenzy during a June speech. But does his performance warrant a Hitler comparison?

SEE ALSO:
-- MNGOP leaders approve use of thousands of taxpayer dollars to defend voter ID amendment
-- Mark Ritchie's amendment title: "Limiting the status of marriage to opposite sex couples"
-- Mark Ritchie uninvited to speak at Catholic church... or is he? [UPDATE]

In a new post, the Power Line blog -- a popular conservative website that was Time magazine's first-ever "Blog of the Year" back in 2004 -- takes a serious swing at Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.

Remarking on Ritchie's frothing-at-the-mouth anti-voter ID June speech at the DFL convention, Power Line co-founder Scott Johnson writes that "Ritchie looks like he takes the late German Führer as his forensic model, though he lacks his warmth." Lacks Hitler's warmth!


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A lawsuit alleging the voter ID ballot question is "vague and misleading" will be heard next month.

Lawmakers have Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and Attorney General Lori Swanson at their disposal to defend lawsuits against approved legislation, but in the case of the voter ID amendment, MNGOP leaders don't trust the left-leaning duo to do a satisfactory job.

As a result, the Legislative Coordination Commission -- made of up legislative leaders of both parties, with more Republicans than Democrats -- voted along party lines yesterday to use $18,000 of taxpayer money and hire outside attorneys to defend voter ID against a pending lawsuit. An attorney with House Research told the Pioneer Press that as far as he knows, this is the first time the legislature has moved to intervene in a lawsuit.

Said House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, D-Minneapolis: "I don't think it makes sense for the legislature to actually intervene for the first time and spend taxpayer dollars to defend this, when somebody else [i.e. Ritchie and Swanson] is already going to be doing that same work."

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