Over the years, politicians have thought up just about every conceivable scheme for scraping the last few votes from the bottom of the barrel. So much so, that it seems impossible that anyone could come up with a truly unique way of (legally) cheating in an election.
But here in Minnesota we have a rare electoral genius in Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. I am sure that other Secretaries of State have tried using their office to help advance their own political ideology, but I’m willing to bet that none of them have taken the campaign to the actual ballot.
Minnesota law allows the Secretary of State to choose the title that appears on the ballot for proposed constitutional amendments. Past Secretaries of State have gone with the title passed by the legislature, whether they agree with the amendment or not. But not our Secretary of Innovation. He changed the title of the two proposed amendments as follows:
Legislature’s Title: “RECOGNITION OF MARRIAGE SOLELY BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN.”
Ritchie’s Title: “LIMITING THE STATUS OF MARRIAGE TO OPPOSITE SEX COUPLES.”
Legislature’s Title: “PHOTO IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING.”
Ritchie’s Title: “CHANGES TO IN-PERSON VOTING AND ABSENTEE VOTING AND VOTER REGISTRATION; PROVISIONAL BALLOTS.”
(Secretary of State Ritchie has come out against photo ID because Minnesota politics is so squeaky clean, already.)
A lot of Minnesota Republicans are whining about Ritchie’s move, but I think we need to admit that he got us. In fact, I think that he should abandon all subtlety and take the next step in ballot campaigning:
Here's the full version of the ballot:
