(This is my first Diary here, forgive any formatting missteps. And I need to give a big hat-tip to
Kid Oakland for the motivation to write it.)
Chances are, you don't know Mark Ritchie. He is running for Secretary of State in Minnesota. Now, this might make me a bit of a hopeless wonk, but this is the race I am most passionate about this cycle. Please follow me over the fold and I'll tell you why.
Mark Ritchie is, quite frankly a man of uncommon integrity, vision, and character. I first learned about Mark in a little sidebar of the Utne Reader back in 2000. For the past 20 years he has run
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, one of the first NGOs to oppose ruinous free trade agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA, and The WTO. Since moving to Minneapolis, I have had the honor of befriending many employees of the Institute, who talk about Mark and his work as "visionary." I have had the opportunity to meet him, and shake his hand. Believe me, he is good people.
In recent years, Mark has become increasingly involved with voter participation and voter's rights. In 2004 he took a leave from IATP to lead National Voice, a nation-wide, non-partisan voter registration project. The group is responsible for the "November 2" campaign (You might remember those t-shirts all the cool kids were wearing in 2004).
Mark's opponent, incumbent Mary Kiffmeyer wants nothing more to be the next Katherine Harris or Ken Blackwell. She is, quite frankly, a partisan hack. She'll play a little loose with the law on one hand, and then just plain drop the ball on the other.
Furthermore at a time when, oh what was the number I saw yesterday, oh yeah, 92% of Americans want more transparency in voting, Kiffmeyer is rolling out this:
This fall, voters in 83 of Minnesota's 87 counties will use electronic machines made by Election Systems & Software of Omaha. Four counties -- Ramsey, Anoka, Dakota and Washington -- will use machines made by Ohio-based Diebold Inc.
And, for those of you who don't know Minnesota geography the counties of Anoka, Dakota, and Washington happen to be part of some very close house races, namely Patty Wetterling MN-06 and Colleen Rowley in MN-02, not to mention key swing districts for all statewide races.
This is why we need Mark Ritchie. Our Champion for Democracy. Like I said, I've never been inspired to vote for a down the ballot office like SoS, but this time I am.
I'll let Mark take us home in his own words.
Minnesota Will Not Be The Ohio of 2006
Until recently Minnesota has been widely regarded across the nation as a model for fair elections. Under previous Secretaries of State, Joan Growe (a Democrat) and Arlen Erdahl (a Republican), we knew we would be able to register and vote without a lot of hassle and that our votes would be properly counted. In recent years, under Secretary of State Kiffmeyer, our state has unfortunately begun to head down the path of Florida and Ohio, where widespread attempts by partisan election officials kept hundreds of thousands from voting and questions remain about the accuracy of the final vote totals.
Now it seems this kind of highly irregular voting administration may be the goal of the Minnesota Republican Party. At their convention last week, state chairman Ron Carey told delegates, "Minnesota's probably going to be the Ohio of 2006. This is the blocking and tackling in the trenches that is critical to making sure, in a close election, that we're the ones with 51 percent."
With important elections coming this fall, we must ensure that all eligible citizens have fair access to the polls. Minnesota must have open elections that do not even have the appearance of attempted manipulation by any political party. We must reject Ron Carey's attempt to energize his Republican stalwarts by urging them to turn our state into the next proving ground for voter intimidation and suppression. Secretary of State Kiffmeyer should publicly repudiate these comments unless she supports them.
In one voice we must tell Ron Carey, "Minnesota will not be the Ohio of 2006!"