MCN's board of directors places a high priority on making our nation’s democratic processes work for everyone. When the processes of representative government work well, everyone has a voice on the issues that affect their lives. For this reason, MCN has opposed photo identification as a new condition of voting.
Working with partners in the Voting Rights Coalition, MCN advocated against adoption of such proposals between 2004 and 2011. A bill did pass the legislature in 2011, but was vetoed by the Governor. In 2012, the Minnesota Legislature voted to put a constitutional amendment before voters that would require a photo identification to vote and make significant changes in other areas of our election system.
MCN helped recruit new and former partners to educate their communities about why the Voter Restriction Amendment would weaken our election system and make voting more challenging for many communities. MCN was a founding member of Our Vote, Our Future, the statewide campaign created to oppose the Voter Restriction Amendment.
Through the hard work of Our Vote, Our Future, dozens of nonprofits, labor unions and concerned citizens, voters became aware of the many problems of the proposed amendment and rejected it by a 53 percent to 46 percent margin.