SOS Mark Ritchie Speaking Against Voter ID at 2012 MInnesota DFL Convention

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie is a very vocal critic of the Voter ID Amendment.  He spoke strongly against it during the legislative process and is apparently campaigning around the state against the amendment.  Yet in the ACLU/LWV/Common Cause Minnesota Supreme Court lawsuit he is named as the defendant.  Attorney General Lori Swanson, who would also be "defending" the amendment, is also  against the amendment.  This could end up being the least well defended case in history.

In his speech Mark Ritchie stated

This is going into the Constitution, it cannot be fixed, it cannot be tweaked, it cannot be corrected, its forever.

Not the words of someone likely to put his entire, or possibly any, effort into supporting legislation that a huge majority, 80%, of Minnesotans want.

CBS

Minnesota Majority, a conservative group that’s backing the photo ID amendment, issued a statement predicting the petition will fail. The group’s president, Jeff Davis, noted that it names as defendant Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a vocal opponent of photo ID. He questioned whether Ritchie, a Democrat, would properly defend the case and said his group or pro-amendment legislators would likely seek to intervene.

We need to have our legislators step up and vigorously defend their work!