Courtesy of MCCL press release: Nearly five thousand Minnesotans marched at the State Capitol today to urge lawmakers not to cut the crucial Positive Alternatives program providing practical, essential help for pregnant women in need. They also called for an end to coerced abortions in which women experience pressure or physical violence. The annual Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) March for Life commemorates the millions of lives lost to abortion.
The 2009 MCCL March for Life marked the 36th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions that have resulted in the deaths of more than 530,000 unborn Minnesota children, and more than 50 million unborn babies nationwide. In addition, recent research from the Elliot Institute shows that nearly two-thirds of post-abortive women report that coercion was a factor in their abortions.

“No woman should ever be forced into abortion—not by relatives, the child’s father or abortionists,” MCCL Legislative Associate Jordan Bauer told the huge crowd of citizens from across the state. “We have legislation this year to stop coerced abortions. Abortion is not a choice, because no baby would ever choose to die.”

MCCL called upon lawmakers to preserve full funding for Positive Alternatives as they deliberate over the budget deficit. Passed in 2005, this legislation provides grants to organizations that help pregnant women successfully face the challenges of pregnancy and childbirth. More than 12,000 women received critical help in the program’s first two years. “Positive Alternatives saves lives,” Bauer explained. “We must save the Positive Alternatives program!”
MCCL’s 2008 legislative agenda also calls for a ban on sex-selection and saline abortions, as well as a ban on taxpayer funding of abortion. In 2006 (most recent figures), Minnesotans were forced to pay $1.6 million for elective abortions, according to the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Taxpayers now fund 28 percent of all abortions in the state.

MCCL will oppose the Reproductive Privacy Act, S.F. 115, which would nullify virtually all protective laws, including informed consent under Woman’s Right to Know and the state’s parental notification provision. Several of Minnesota’s pro-life elected officials offered words of support to the state’s pro-life majority. Prolife Gov. Tim Pawlenty told the crowd that he was proud to stand with them in “the noble cause of affirming the culture of life.” Pawlenty also urged the Legislature to maintain full funding for Positive Alternatives. “We should all be able to come together to promote positive alternatives to abortion in Minnesota and America.”

The Hon. Norm Coleman spoke to the thousands of pro-life citizens, saying that Roe v. Wade “compromised” the right to life guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence. “Every nation is defined by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens,” Coleman declared. “Who is more vulnerable that the unborn?”

TAKE ACTION: Sign the petition calling for an end to taxpayer-funded abortions in Minnesota

Click on the image below to view our Christmas greeting.

The ill-conceived auto industry bailout bill passed in the US House last week, but was rightly rejected by the US Senate. Special interests aren’t giving up, however. Now they are looking for huge handouts from the Treasury Secretary and the White House. While this situation is being portrayed as a bailout of the auto industry, it is, in fact, a ploy designed to delay the inevitable implosion of the unsustainable United Auto Workers (UAW) union contract demands.

This bailout will only temporarily prop up UAW’s dysfunctional relationship with the auto companies. Union contracts with the manufacturers that require paying 700,000 people nearly full wages for not working plus the extraordinary legacy costs of health care and pensions have crippled US automakers’ finances. Reports indicate that GM currently looses $326 for each car that rolls-off the end of its assembly line while Toyota makes a profit of $1266 per vehicle it sells.

UAW contracts have effectively killed the “golden goose”, so now they are demanding “golden eggs” from American taxpayers. The proposed bailout would only delay the inevitable and at significant cost. Today’s US automaker business model is simply not sustainable. The only chance to rescue the US auto industry is to allow companies to enter bankruptcy, restructure and emerge leaner, stronger and more competitive.

The money demanded for the bailout doesn’t even exist. What’s being proposed is massive deficit spending. When the government creates money from thin air, everyone’s dollars are devalued. Government bailouts are stealing wealth from American families.

TAKE ACTION: Click here to send a message to President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson demanding that they not use money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to be used to bailout the auto industry.

The day before the election, I had an opportunity to purchase a used canoe. After completing the transaction, I loaded the 30-year-old boat atop my SUV and headed to city hall. I had called the Department of Natural Resources earlier that day to find-out what I needed to do once I had made the purchase. I was told that since this was the first time the boat was to be registered in my name, I would need to appear in-person with the bill-of-sale at a Deputy Registrar’s office.

When I arrived at city hall, the Registrar asked for my driver’s license and the boat’s hull identification number. The Registrar then entered this information into a computer system which immediately verified its accuracy. The system indicated that the hull number was already registered under another person’s name. But after some investigation, the Registrar determined the prior registration was no longer active. After giving the Registrar a check for $24, I was provided with a watercraft registration card and a permit that I was required to affix to the hull of the canoe. The whole process took less than 10 minutes.

The next day, while waiting in line at the polls to vote, I observed a long line of people waiting to complete same-day voter registrations. While some people were using driver’s licenses to confirm their identity, I noticed an individual who appeared to be using the “vouching” process. Vouching is a provision in Minnesota law that allows an individual to register on Election Day by simply having someone from the precinct confirm his or her identity and residence. I watched as the individual filled-out a paper registration card and then was immediately provided with a ballot to cast their vote. There was no verification by election officials that the information provided on the registration card was, in fact, accurate.

I began to compare and contrast the process I had experienced the day before to register my canoe with the process being used for same-day voter registrations. When registering the canoe, I was asked to produce my driver’s license to confirm my identity. In same-day voter registrations, the applicant is not required to produce any form of photographic identification. When registering a canoe, the Registrar entered my information into a computer system that performed a real-time verification to confirm its accuracy. In same-day voter registrations, the voter’s registration information is recorded on a paper card which is not entered into a computer system until several weeks after the election. Same-day registrations are supposedly “verified” using a 30-year-old process of mailing a post card to the address listed on the registration card. If the post card is returned as being “undeliverable”, the voter’s registration record is supposed to be flagged so the voter can be “challenged” at the next election. If the voter registration is fraudulent, however, there is no way to “undo” the fraudulent vote, since the fraudulent ballot was counted together with all the valid ballots on Election Day.

A review of Minnesota’s voter registration rolls prior to this year’s election revealed over 100,000 voter registrations with addresses that are considered to be either “vacant” or “undeliverable” by the United States Postal Service. The post card verification process that was implemented prior to the availability of computer systems is obviously sorely lacking.

It is amazing how vulnerable Minnesota’s election process is to voter fraud. Any person desiring to vote more than once in a single election would simply need to find someone to vouch for their identity in a different precinct on Election Day. A person could also easily cast multiple ballots by posing as another registered voter. Since the Secretary of State does not do a timely job of flagging the registrations of the deceased persons and individuals who have moved, a dishonest person could simply obtain a list of these voter registration records and travel from precinct-to-precinct casting multiple ballots by representing themselves as these individuals.

All of this begs the simply question as to why Minnesota puts more of a priority on securing the process for registering an old canoe than on securing its voter registration process. The technology is readily available to perform real-time verification of voter registrations. But some politicians have resisted attempts to implement these controls, claiming that they would “intimidate” or “disenfranchise” some voters. This is complete nonsense. The only reason someone would favor a process with known deficiencies is that they know illegal voting is occurring and they want it to continue. Minnesota voters deserve a voter registration process that is as least as secure as the process used to register a boat.

Marriage amendments passed in all three states in which it was on the ballot. The citizens of Florida, Arizona and California all agree that marriage should be exclusively defined as the union of one man and one woman. This brings the total to 30 states that have now amended their state constitutions to protect marriage.

The decision in California unwinds an earlier State Supreme Court decision which ordered the state to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Activist courts in Massachusetts and Connecticut have also imposed same-sex ‘marriage’ upon the citizens of their states.

Efforts to pass a bill which would allow the citizens of Minnesota to vote on a marriage amendment have been repeatedly defeated in the DFL-controlled state legislature. This has left Minnesota vulnerable to an attempt to legalize same-sex 'marriage' through the courts or a renegade legislature.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie employing intimidation tactics in an attempt to suppress investigation of voter registration irregularities.

Yesterday afternoon Secretary of State Mark Ritchie called a press conference alleging that Jean Sanford, a volunteer with Minnesota Majority, had inappropriately contacted a voter representing herself as working with the Secretary of State. Secretary Ritchie further asserted that the volunteer from Minnesota Majority was engaged in voter intimidation tactics.

"The complaint is completely frivolous and Mark Ritchie knows it," said Jeff Davis, President of Minnesota Majority.  In a sworn affidavit given today by Jean Sanford, she contradicts the voter's complaint.  Sanford said that she never represented herself as being associated with the Secretary of State.

“Jean is a sweet little grandma who is passionate about transparency in elections,” said Davis, “The voter’s own sworn statement indicates that he found Mrs. Sanford to be very kind. I can’t imagine how anyone could be intimidated by this lady.” Minnesota Majority believes that the voter, above all else, was concerned by the amount of information that is maintained on Minnesota’s public voter registration records.

"Mark Ritchie's actions are simply a ruse to deflect attention away from the real issue at hand – the obvious problems with Minnesota’s voter registration records," said Davis.  Minnesota Majority has been investigating apparent irregularities in the Secretary of State’s voter registration records for several days and has uncovered a large number of anomalies including: 

• POTENTIAL DUPLICATE VOTER REGISTRATION RECORDS: A total of 16,578 exact voter registration record matches using the criteria of first name, middle name, last name and birth year. When phone number is used instead of middle name as a matching criterion, there are a total of 488 matching records.
• VACANT AND NON-DELIVERABLE ADDRESSES: A total of 29,006 voters have a voter registration address which is flagged as being “vacant” by the United States Postal Service. A total of 62,822 voters list an address which is flagged as being “non-deliverable” by the Postal Service.
• DEFICIENT VOTER REGISTRATIONS DUE TO MISSING BIRTH YEAR: There are a total of 1,695 voter registrations with registration dates after August 1, 1983 when birth date was required by law.
• VOTER REGISTERING BEFORE THE AGE OF 18: Over 1,800 records have a voter registration date and a birth year that suggests the voter registered before the age of 18 years of age (some before they were born).
• VOTERS POTENTIALLY CASTING MORE THAN ONE BALLOT IN A SINGLE ELECTION: 76 cases in which it appears that a single voter may have cast more than one ballot, with thousands of additional records which merit additional review.

Volunteers have been researching these apparent discrepancies by taking photographs of vacant lots at addresses listed on voter registrations and telephoning individuals who appear to have duplicate voter registration records.  When contacting people by phone, volunteers give people their name, identify themselves as being with Minnesota Majority and ask the individual to verify their address.

Minnesota Majority suspects that Secretary of State Ritchie may be trying to use the power of his office to suppress further investigation. "The citizens of Minnesota should be very concerned when a public official exploits the power of his office to attack a private citizen who is simply trying to ask questions," said Davis.  "We are not deterred by Secretary of State Ritchie’s tactics. We have not done anything wrong. No one should be intimidated by our research, unless of course an individual was contemplating committing voter fraud." 

Minnesota Majority's attorney has submitted a letter to Mr. Ritchie asking him to immediately present all evidence pertaining to the false allegations.  Legal counsel is also exploring what, if any, improprieties may have been committed by Mr. Ritchie or members of his office in the process of bringing this complaint.

While nearly every Twin Cities media outlet was happy to report on Ritchie's false allegations on Wednesday, only a few media outlets attended today's press conference to get Minnesota Majority's side of the story (kudos to the Star Tribune for being one of the few that actually published a story). 

TAKE ACTION:  Contact Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and tell him what you think about his actions.  Write a letter to the editor and let them know what you think about the media's obvious bias in covering this story.

Yesterday, October 21, Minnesota Majority finally received an official written reply to our October 16 letter to the Secretary of State regarding inconsistencies we discovered in the state's voter file. We found the letter, authored by Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann, to be dismissive of our concerns. For example, Mr. Gelbmann claimed not to understand what we meant by the definition of a "vacant" address.  He also said the Secretary of State does not remove deceased individuals from active voter rolls until at least two elections cycles have passed in which the individual did not vote.  Are they concerned about disenfranchising dead voters? 

Today Minnesota Majority responded to the Deputy's letter by submitting a second letter requesting a comprehensive validation of the Minnesota voter file.  In our second letter we included the results of additional analysis which suggests that there may be thousands of duplicate voter registration records on the voter file and possible instances of voter fraud.

TAKE ACTION:  Contact Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and ask him to complete a comprehensive verification of Minnesota's voter file prior to this year's election.

There may have been a time when a voter could confidently know that a Democrat would stand for one thing and a Republican another, but that certainly isn’t the case anymore. Former Democrat Senator Joe Lieberman spoke on Senator John McCain’s behalf at the Republican National Convention. Republican Senator Norm Coleman was a Democrat as mayor of St. Paul. Even conservative Republican icon Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat. Minnesota Majority’s 2007-2008 Legislative Scorecard ranked some House Republicans lower than some Democrats on traditional values issues. That’s why it’s more important than ever to know where the candidates stand and be prepared to vote based on principles instead of just blind party loyalty.

To help voters understand where the candidates stand on the issues, Minnesota Majority launched a new election awareness campaign called “Vote Your Values Minnesota”. The campaign was introduced with a new metro-area billboard featuring an undecided voter facing a choice between party and principle. The billboard directs people to the website, VoteYourValuesMN.org which includes a collection of resources to assist voters get informed this election season. Visitors to the site will find their legislators’ voting record, tools to find their polling place, getting registered to vote and information about the candidates on the ballot in their district among other things. A number of competitive House races are also spotlighted with side-by-side candidate comparisons on a variety of traditional values issues.