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Where’s the Leadership?

Severson has no record of leadership on improving overseas voting practices for military personnel

St. Paul (June 1, 2010) - The GOP candidate for Secretary of State today claimed to be an advocate for the voting rights of military personnel, but his record in the state legislature tells a different story.

"Dan Severson has repeatedly failed to lead on improving voting practices for our military personnel and is only now stepping into the discussion to play politics with our soldiers' rights," said DFL spokesperson Kristin Sosanie. "Not only did Severson oppose military voting assistance legislation in 2007, he also voted against moving the primary to help overseas voters in 2009. Let's be serious, if Severson wants to pretend to lead on military voting, he needs to first explain his opposition to reform and lack of leadership over the past eight years."

Over the past decade, the US Department of Defense, through their Federal Voting Assistance Program, has recommended an earlier date for the Minnesota primary to allow 45 days for absentee ballots to be sent out to citizens overseas. Since Mark Ritchie took office, he has strongly promoted legislation to comply with this recommendation. Dan Severson voted against it repeatedly before finally flip-flopping earlier this year.

Background:

Dan Severson's record shows no leadership on military voting.

  • Dan Severson voted against military voting package included in the state government finance bill in 2007. [SF 1997]
  • Dan Severson repeatedly opposed moving the primary to help overseas voters.
    • In 2007 Severson opposed HF 201, a bill to move the state primary from September to August. [HF 201]
    • In 2009, Severson did not show up to vote on SF 1331. [SF 1331]
    • Then, Severson eventually showed up to vote against SF 1331 after it was amended. [SF 1331 as amended]
  • Severson finally flip-flopped earlier this year when the legislature moved the primary date to August 10th. [SF 2251]

 

Mark Ritchie has led the nation in increasing ballots from military personnel serving overseas, tripling the number of servicemen and women who were able to vote

  • The count rate jumped from 18% in 2006 to 59% in 2008 [Election Assistance Commission, 2006 & 2008]
  • 3396 military ballots were counted in 2008 vs. the 1072 counted in 2006 [Election Assistance Commission, 2006 & 2008]

 

 

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