Good Thing Minnesota Has Someone in Charge Who Cares About Counting Every Vote

I found this excellent article on alternet this morning about Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie...the guy in charge of our Senate recount here.

It is written by Jay Walljasper, and the link is below the snips.


*snip*


Making sure that every vote counts is exactly the reason Mark Ritchie ran for Secretary of State. He realized the vulnerable nature of democracy in 2002 (not just in Florida, but in his home state) when Senator Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash two weeks before election day.

Ritchie, a former high-ranking official in the state's agriculture department and founder of the Institute for Trade and Agriculture Policy, was shocked to learn that Minnesota's then Republican Secretary of State tried to block people who had voted for Wellstone on absentee ballots from casting a new ballot for Walter Mondale, who succeeded Wellstone as the Democratic nominee in the race against Coleman. (Several years earlier, a Democratic Secretary of State had done just the opposite when a new Republican candidate for Minnesota governor was added to the ticket at the last minute after a sex scandal and went on to win a very narrow victory.)


*snip*


Ritchie then made his successful run for Secretary of State in 2006, and did all he could to turn out voters for this year's election. It ranked first in the nation as it had in 2004. "Not withstanding Garrison Keillor's claim that we are all above average here, that's not the reason we have higher vote totals than other states" he explains. "It's that we have a system that encourages people to vote."


*snip*


To increase voter turnout in Minnesota, Ritchie is working on automatically updating a person's voting registration when they send a change-of-address form to the post office. He found ways to streamline voting for the 80,000 Minnesotans living abroad, including troops stationed in Iraq, by allowing them to receive ballots by email that were returned through a special arrangement with FedEx. He's also launching a campaign to reinvigorate the teaching of civics in Minnesota schools so young people can learn about the electoral system and why voting is important.


*snip*


In an election year when voter suppression-bureaucratic hurdles to voting, especially for lower-income and first-time voters-has become a major issue in campaign coverage, Ritchie is well aware of the power of Secretaries of State to either expand or constrict the number of people participating in the democratic process. "It's part of my job to make it possible for everyone to go to the polls and make sure their vote counts. You make decisions morning, noon and night that help or hinder people in voting. "Helping people participate in elections is part of the historic process in America of extending voting rights," he adds. "We expanded suffrage to women and Native Americans and, thanks to the civil rights movement, to all African-Americans and then to 18-year-olds. This is all part of a battle for enfranchisement that continues today. It's an essential part of democracy-and of the commons-that everyone should be easily able to vote."



More at the link:
http://www.alternet.org/election08/108616/good_thing_minnesota_has_someone_in_charge_who_cares_about_counting_every_vote/

Three heroes of American democracy: people who obey and implement the law without partisan favor or taint of corruption.

:patriot:


While it is good to have such exceptional public servants, it IS sad that they're exceptional.

Debra is certainly our hero.

and Governor Pawlenty was flooded with criticism for going on Faux and saying "something is amiss" last week. People of the state pretty much told Pawlenty to shut up and let the process work without his grandstanding. Ritchie is popular here.

the mid and late 80's. He's a great guy and will do the job right.