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Capitol View®
Tom Scheck

House committee approves online voter registration

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The Minnesota House Elections committee approved a bill Tuesday that would allow people to register to vote through a state website.

DFL Secretary of State Mark Ritchie launched a website last fall, but critics took him to court saying that he exceeded his constitutional authority. The bill would allow the online registry to continue regardless of how the court rules.

Rep. Steve Simon, a St. Louis Park Democrat who is running for Secretary of State, said Republicans agreed to the registry after extra security precautions were put in place.

"Now there's language, there's real teeth there, that the Secretary of State must every time verify that that information is accurate and must, if there's suspicious activity, forward that activity or suspicions to law enforcement," Simon said.

Republicans who criticized the measure last fall say they dropped their concerns after Simon listened to their initial problems with the measure.

I think we’ve accommodated every single concern that we had,” said Rep. Tim Sanders, R-Blaine. “Whenever we can put technology in place, and we can do it well, we should move in that direction.”

Simon said the bill would ensure that more than 3,300 people who have already registered to vote since the registry was created will be able to vote.