Good News on Voter ID

There's good news on Minnesota's upcoming voter restriction vote: a new poll says support has shifted substantially downward.

In May 2011, a similar poll found support at 80 percent, but now it's just 52 percent, with 44 percent opposed and 4 percent undecided. (In Minnesota, any ballot submitted without a vote on a constitutional amendment is counted as a "no.")

I recently talked to a person at Take Action Minnesota, one of the primary groups organizing against the amendment. She said that in calling voters, they've been finding "the softest yesses" she's ever seen on any issue. Folks haven't thought about it that much, and they're responding with what they think is a common sense answer. Like the guy in the Star Tribune story linked above, who said "It doesn't seem that it would be that much of a hindrance for the average voter."

It won't be "that much" of a hindrance to the "average" voter, but it will be a hindrance to a substantial numbers of less-average voters. And it sounds like it doesn't take too much explanation about those less-average voters to move a yes voter to a no voter.

Looks like I'll have to fire up the old telephone for the cause in the coming weeks.