Minn. Supreme Court rejects challenge to photo ID; throws out ballot issue titles

A pair of Minnesota Supreme Court rulings will keep the voter ID amendment on the November ballot and restore the titles the Legislature gave to that ballot question and the marriage amendment. The justices ruled Secretary of State Mark Ritchie overstepped his authority by substituting amendment titles he had written for those supplied by lawmakers.

In the other case, groups including the League of Women Voters argued the ballot question written by the Legislature misrepresented the actual Constitutional amendment. The majority ruled the groups’ complaints were not serious enough for the court to remove the question from the ballot, although Justices Alan Page and Paul Anderson dissented. Page wrote that the ballot question deliberately misstates the language of the amendment.