What the Secretary of State was like before Mark Ritchie

Note: In honor of Michael Brodkorb’s hit piece on Mark Ritchie, I’m promoting this post back to the top. Originally published at 8 am.

Thank god we have Mark Ritchie overseeing this election. Had his predecessor Mary Kiffmeyer remained in the office, there would have been absolutely no hope of having a fair recount. Kiffmeyer was an extremist right-wing partisan, who played a major role in Republicans’ efforts to reduce voter turnout. Let me repeat that: before 2006, Minnesota had a Secretary of State whose goal was to get FEWER PEOPLE TO VOTE!

As part of their continuing campaign to stop Minnesotans’ voices from being heard, Republicans are now going on the offensive by smearing Mark Ritchie. What makes this so laughable is that there would have been no chance of a fair recount under Ritchie’s Republican predecessor. With hyper-partisan Mary Kiffmeyer out of the way, the voters will be heard. That leaves only one option for the Republicans: try to de-legitimize the election.

As the Republican smear machine goes after Ritchie, let’s just remember who he replaced. Are the Republicans honestly trying to say that someone like Kiffmeyer would be better to run the recount that Ritchie? I don’t think so. Just look at some of Kiffmeyer’s worst moments:

She publicly declared her dislike of Minnesota’s same-day voter registration system
In a blatant attempt to scare people away from the polls, she issued alerts about terrorists at polling places
She declared that the 5 most dangerous words were “separation of church and state.”
In response to county election officials’ complaints about a new voter-registration system, she suggested it was their fault.

Mark Ritchie was elected because he was a much better choice than Mary Kiffmeyer. I am so thankful that Ritchie, and not Kiffmeyer, is not running this recount. This year, we have a Secretary of State we can count on.

Need more proof? There’s lots more on Kiffmeyer’s history below.

[All articles referenced here are by subscription only; if you have a library card, you can access them through your local library's website by using the ProQuest database. All emphasis added by me.]

Politicizing the Secretary of State’s Office

Star Tribune, Dec. 29 1998:

Although Kiffmeyer is a consummate GOP activist who talks of increasing the number of political appointments in the secretary of state’s office, she says partisanship will take a back seat in her new job.

“The secretary of state’s office needs to be conducted in a nonpartisan, nonpolitical manner, a level playing field for everybody,” she said. “I’ve told my Republican friends that the rules will be the same for everybody.”

Star Tribune, Jan. 6 2000:

The head of the DFL Party on Wednesday accused Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer of playing partisan politics in brochures her office printed up to explain Minnesota’s precinct caucuses.

The brochures say the caucuses will be held Tuesday, March 7. That’s true for the Republican, Reform and Constitution parties. But the DFL, for the first time, will hold its precinct meetings the following weekend in an effort to improve attendance.

DFL chair Mike Erlandson said that Kiffmeyer, a Republican, was trying “to politicize a democratic process that’s intended to be accessible to all Minnesotans.”

Star Tribune, Dec. 21 2003:

Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer helped lead a GOP effort to block a proposed “Young Voters Presidential Forum” at the University of Iowa next month.

Kiffmeyer, president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, which considered backing the Jan. 14 forum, said it would be inappropriate for a national group of state election officials to sponsor what would look like a Democratic event.

“Why would we, as a non-partisan association with a broad membership, enter into an internal, partisan race,” Kiffmeyer said. “You have nine [Democratic candidates] on one side, and one [President Bush] on the other . . . which is going to give an appearance of partisanship, no matter how you structure it.”

Kiffmeyer dismissed behind-the-scenes grumbling by Democrats that the White House was behind the effort to stop the event.

“I would say all the presidential candidates got involved,” Kiffmeyer said. “I mean, are you thinking that President Bush and all the other nine presidential candidates didn’t have a voice in this?”

The forum was blocked Tuesday by a 5-5 party-line vote of the association’s executive committee.

Suppressing the vote

Star Tribune, Feb. 8 2001:

Minnesota’s election system is basically sound and superior to Florida’s, Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer said Wednesday, but she proposed four changes in Minnesota election laws to address voters’ uneasiness following the tumultuous presidential vote in Florida.

“When even the smallest weakness is detected, the entire system is called into question,” said Kiffmeyer, a Republican, referring to citizen complaints and comments she collected in recent hearings around the state.

The proposal that drew the sharpest response is an “anti-fraud” provision that, among other things, would require all voters to display a photo ID before casting ballots. DFL and Independence Party leaders said it is an unnecessary barrier to voting.

“She’s combating fraud that simply doesn’t appear to exist,” said DFL Party Chair Mike Erlandson.

“It will end up souring people on the process even more,” said Independence Party Chairman Rick McCluhan. “We do not have a problem with voter fraud in this state.”

Star Tribune, Feb. 18 2001:

The Hennepin County Board passed a resolution Tuesday opposing plans by Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer to require citizens to display picture identification to vote and supply part of their Social Security number to register.

The move may signal the beginning of an uphill battle for support for the ideas among county and city elections officials.

…Commissioner Peter McLaughlin, the author of the resolution, called the proposals “a solution in search of a problem” and said they are an attempt to limit access, particularly for poor and minority voters who may not have the proper ID.

Star Tribune, May 21 2001:

Nearly 5,000 Minnesotans who voted in the wrong precinct in November are receiving letters telling them that if they do it again they’ll be committing a crime.

Some metro-area elections officials have questioned the value of the state-mandated letter aimed at curtailing election fraud, saying it has only annoyed voters.

“I think voter fraud is extremely minimal,” said Carver County Auditor Mark Lundgren, who attributes most wrong-place voting to human error. “If it has been an honest mistake, [a fine of up to $200] is a stiff fine to pay, if there should be any fine at all in terms of exercising your right to vote.”

…

Officials say voters are sometimes directed to the wrong polling place.

…

Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin, a DFLer, described the letter as a partisan attempt by Kiffmeyer to intimidate voters.

“People who register on Election Day tend to be renters or low- income people, and, oh, by the way, they tend to vote Democratic,” said McLaughlin, a former legislator. “I think the secretary of state has a partisan interest in making that process intimidating.”

Wall Street Journal, Sept. 19 2002:

…Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer is tired of hearing her state’s “same-day” registration extolled. She compares it to holding a party and not knowing how much food to buy because no one RSVP’d. Some precincts run out of ballots while others are overstocked. “We have long lines because of same-day,” she says. “People get frustrated and leave.”

Star Tribune, Sept. 14 2004:

Posters warning poll workers to be on the lookout for shaved heads and the smell of flower water will be absent from many polling places across Minnesota today in the midst of a dispute between Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer and local election officials.

The cautionary posters, issued last week by Kiffmeyer in conjunction with state homeland security officials, are meant to be a line of defense against terrorist attacks.

But no other state apparently has produced such warnings on the eve of elections, and many local elections officials in Minnesota say they may unduly raise alarms among poll workers and unfairly single out certain voters.

So some local officials are simply refusing to distribute the posters.

Washington Post, Oct 6 2004:

Analysts say that regardless of intent, terrorism warnings have shaped voter attitudes, an influence that could grow if the warnings are extended to polling sites. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said people who oppose President Bush “see a clear pattern to scare the electorate,” while his supporters see “an administration vigilantly protecting the country.” As for undecided or swing voters, “raising the public’s anxiety level helps the candidacy of George Bush, because at the moment the polls suggest the public feels it’s safer to have George Bush as president,” she said.

Critics of the warnings point to Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer’s effort to raise terrorism awareness as an example of how election security measures could chill turnout. Kiffmeyer (R) gave local election officials fliers that warned voters to watch for unattended packages, vehicles “riding low on springs” and “homicide bombers.”

Bombers may have a “shaved head or short hair,” “smell of unusual herbal/flower water or perfume,” wear baggy clothes or appear to be whispering to themselves, the flier warned.

Star Tribune, Sept. 6 2006:

Trading accusations of playing politics with state election law, Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer and her DFL-endorsed challenger sparred Tuesday over carrying out changes making it easier for American Indians to vote.

DFLer Mark Ritchie said Kiffmeyer, a Republican, has failed to alert Indians that they can prove residency using a tribal identification card without an address if they also show a current utility bill.

Easing requirements for voter registration has long been important to Indians because of their mobility between cities and reservations and because some Minnesota bands don’t include addresses on tribal ID cards.

Kiffmeyer’s right-wing extremism

Star Tribune, Jan 23 2000:

Vowing to keep their movement strong, more than 5,000 people attended the annual rally of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) Saturday on the steps of the State Capitol in St. Paul.

Abortion opponents hold the protest each year to mark the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision on Jan. 22, 1973, that legalized the procedure.

…

The bundled-up crowd included several current and former legislators, including Minnesota House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R- Kenyon, and Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, also a Republican.

Star Tribune, Apr. 26, 2004:

The state investment board manages billions in public funds, most of it retirement funds for state employees and teachers. Besides the governor, the board consists of the attorney general, the secretary of state and the state auditor.

Since the board’s first duty is to maximize the return for those who will receive the funds, use of the money for policy purposes is controversial. The issue emerged last month, when the board, at Pawlenty’s request, called on Pfizer to bring its U.S. drug prices into line with foreign pricing. Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer objected, saying that the board’s action could lower the return on its Pfizer holdings and thus jeopardize what retirees may get.

Star Tribune, May 7 2004 [opinion]:

Mary Kiffmeyer, the Minnesota secretary of state, was the keynote speaker Thursday at Vision of Glory Lutheran Church in Plymouth, kicking off Minnesota’s observance of the Day of Prayer with testimony about her faith journey and her belief in a loving God.

So far, so good. But my chair got wobbly when Republican Kiffmeyer let fly that the “five words” that are “probably most destructive” are these: “Separation of church and state.”

Sheer incompetence

Star Tribune, Oct. 1 2004:

Minnesota’s new voter registration system is getting a failing grade for its performance from many of the state’s county election officials less than five weeks before the Nov. 2 election.

The system logs people off, wipes out previously entered data and is so slow that counties already are straining their overtime budgets just to get information entered, the officials complained. And that could lead to some voters being turned away from the polls on Election Day, they said.

“Things that used to take minutes are taking hours. Things that took hours are taking days,” Carlton County Auditor-Treasurer Paul Gassert told the Senate Elections Committee on Thursday.

Minnesota is one of only nine states nationwide to implement the new system for this election under a federal law designed to prevent problems that plagued the 2000 presidential election.

Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, whose office is coordinating implementation of the system, defended it at the Senate hearing, saying many counties report success with it. She also suggested that some counties may be at least partly responsible for their own problems because of technical shortcomings of their computer firewalls and capacity. Some counties, for instance, may temporarily lose their connection to the secretary of state’s system if a video conference is eating up bandwidth at the same time.

Star Tribune, July 26 2005:

A year after Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer faced election- season questions over how she was implementing a new federal law intended to make voting simpler, a state audit has faulted her office for procedural discrepancies regarding the law.

So why did we elect Ritchie instead?

This Star Tribune editorial (Oct. 21 2006) says it all:

…there’s nothing amusing about Kiffmeyer’s actual record. Her policies and practices have had the steady effect - some would say the partisan intent, as well - of discouraging voter participation. She has opposed voting by mail, proposed to decorate polling places with alarmist warning posters about terrorism, and exasperated local elections officials statewide with changing directives about balloting practices and voter identification requirements. Worst, she continues to advocate for requiring voters to produce a photo ID card - a move that would directly undercut Minnesota’s proud tradition of allowing same-day registration and voting by citizens who are elderly, disadvantaged, new to the state or, well, organizationally challenged.

Attentive Minnesotans have learned from disgraceful examples around the country that monkeying with the mechanics of registration, voting and ballot-counting has become the modern method for manipulating election outcomes. Also, that Kiffmeyer’s Republican Party is usually the leading beneficiary of measures that discourage participation at the polls.

Even if that weren’t so, we would urge voters to replace Kiffmeyer with a candidate possessing both commitment and credentials to make voting easier for all Minnesotans. It would be hard to design a better contender than Mark Ritchie.

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Tags: Mark Ritchie, Mary Kiffmeyer

MN Constitutional Offices, National, Recount, Secretary of State | Jeff Rosenberg | November 12, 2008

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What the Secretary of State was like before Mark Ritchie