A Modest Request

[davidschroth]

For anyone who feels the need to explain to a potential Minnesota voter what documentation they need to bring along on election day to successfully register to votr - first, make sure that you have some clue about what you're talking about.

As long as I've been an election judge, a lease is not valid for determining address for voter registration purposes.

I find it mildly frustrating that this appear to be an unkillable misconception...

Comments

You left out Mail

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Especially from a bank...

Re: You left out Mail

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

I left it out because there weren't any people vehemently insisting to me yesterday that the Secretary of State's office/web page (or other unimpeachable authority) had assured them that mail (especially from a bank) was valid documentation for establishing residency in one's precinct...

[guppiecat]

Sure would have simplified things for you if that amendment had passed. ;)

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

We'd have certainly been living in interesting times (in the sense of the mythic Chinese curse)...

[buttonlass.livejournal.com]

In their defense it works in other places. Our last home for example.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Interesting. So utility bills work, but the legal agreement to rent the place doesn't? That seems kinda...stupid, really. (Still the law, so people have to deal with it.)

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

Playing the Devil's Advocate, assume someone who has annual leases on two residences, spends half the year in each residence, and turns off the utilities for the residence they are currently not occupying. (I'm just making a wild-assed guess here about why the legislature requires current utility bill, and doesn't allow things that seem reasonable).

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Also there are sub-rental agreements around. Perhaps utility bills really are a better guide to who is currently living there. Nowhere near certain -- especially when multiple voting-age people live there, since the utility bill will be in one name only.

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

There are unquestionably problems with utility, starting with college students whose utility bills are in the name of their parents. The list is nigh endless...

[drewan.livejournal.com]

While working at the MN United Get Out the Vote Center at Franklin & 1st, I was one of those people having to instruct a lot of people about what they need for same day voter registration. Thankfully we had gotten the message in our training that a lease isn't valid. I was amused to learn though that a utility bill printed from a website works, or the person could even show the bill on their smartphone or laptop.

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

We attempted to register several people by having them show us a utility bill on their smart phone. The one I remember best could not find a usable bill from her utility (the bill needed to have her name, address, and due date on it).