This vote matters: Minnesota Secretary of State

-- Kirsten Jacobson

Local and state-wide elections matter—especially for offices like Minnesota’s secretary of state, a constitutional officer who administrates voting.

The secretary of state balances four main job functions: Recording and filing official state documents, registering and filing business information, maintaining Uniform Commercial Code records and officiating elections.

As an elections official, the secretary of state manages the voter registration system, conducts recounts, trains local elections officials, certifies voting systems and chairs the state canvassing board, which certifies state election results.

For those in favor of Instant Runoff Voting or some kind of ranked voting system, this is the office that can make it happen, assuming whoever is elected is an active advocate.

There will be four candidates on the ballot for Minnesota secretary of state on Nov. 7: Mary Kiffmeyer (GOP), incumbent; Mark Ritchie (DFL); Joel Spoonheim (IP); and Bruce Kennedy (Independent).

The incumbent candidate for Minnesota secretary of state, Mary Kiffmeyer (GOP), said in a candidate profile provided by the League of Women Voters (LWV) that she plans to "continue increasing voter education and turnout..." and will accomplish this in part by "going to schools to motivate and educate on [the] process to prepare for voting."

Kiffmeyer is an advocate of photo IDs as a measure of voter registration security for the future, and said that our current voting system protections are subsequent.

Mark Ritchie (DFL) is a non-profit executive who said he believes in automatic voter registration and address updating. Ritchie told LWV that his priority is to "restore trust by returning nonpartisanship to election administration," and that he wants to "improve availability, accuracy and timeliness of voter information." Ritchie said he believes that audits and the voter registration system will deter fraud.

Joel Spoonheim (IP) is a member of Team Minnesota, a group of Independence Party candidates running for major Minnesota offices. He is currently the director of economic development for the city of Brooklyn Park. Spoonheim wants to make the Minnesota secretary of state office one of "citizen engagement," he told LWV.

"The extreme focus on fraud is scaring citizens away by erecting needless barriers to voting," said Spoonheim, who also said he promises to focus on improving voter turnout instead of scaring them away.

A candidate running independently for any major office is unusual. Bruce Kennedy, independent candidate for Minnesota secretary of state, said in a personal interview that he is running because he wants to "restore people’s faith in elections." Kennedy said he believes that the administrator of voting being tied to a political party "does not inspire confidence."

Kennedy told LWV that he wants to "end the practice of having the chief election official represent a political party."

In the 2004 general election, 77.7 percent of those qualified to vote in Minnesota cast their ballots, according to the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate. It was the best voter-turnout since 1960, though it was a presidential election year and Minnesota has a tradition of strong voter turn-out for presidential elections compared to other states. That still leaves 22.3 percent of people eligible to vote out of the mix.

Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, gave three main reasons why people choose not to vote.

"Many people frequently don’t feel that their vote will make a difference," said Samuelson. "They aren’t informed about issues...[And] finally, negative campaign advertising tends to drive down participation by casual voters."

There are many factors against voter turnout: Negative campaigns, disconnect between good information and would-be-voters, and a lack of faith in the voting system in general.

Samuelson pointed out that votes count because elections are generally very close, particularly local elections where the most money is spent and where voters are most likely to feel the impact of government.

Kennedy said he advises students to disregard TV commercials when considering who can best represent them. "They give no information and only lend power to money," he said. "Use the Web. Be skeptical. Know the source."

Kennedy further said the secretary of state election is especially important because "people have to believe in elections."

To find out more about the functions of the Minnesota secretary of state, visit http://www.sos.state.mn.us.

Elections are around the corner and resources to help prepare are just clicks away. A Web resource that may help to prepare is http://voterhomework.com.