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Minnesota House of Representatives

State Representative Jeanne Poppe

487 State Office BuildingState Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4193

For more information contact: Joel Johnson 651-297-1934

Posted: 2005-01-27 00:00:00
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ALTHOUGH BUDGET TALK DOMINATED, LOCAL CONCERNS STILL PLAYED A BIG ROLE AT THE CAPITOL THIS WEEK

The state budget dominated talk at the Capitol this week, as it should have. After all, how we deal with the state's $1.4 billion deficit is going to impact what we do when it comes to education, transportation, health care and all the other statewide issues.It will also have an impact on our extremely important local issues. That point became crystal clear for me this week as I met with Austin City Engineer Jon Erichson and talked with Bev Norby of the Soil & Water Conservation District on the flood mitigation bonding proposals we have for the Austin area.Jon was able to meet with me in St. Paul to talk about what we need in terms of state help for the short and long term. We want to make sure that we have everything in place and build support from all the right people in order to give our bonding proposal the best chance for passage.That's because there's so much competition for state dollars right now. The state's ongoing budget woes have made that even more true this year. Fortunately, there does seem to be growing bipartisan support for more investment in our economy, which essentially is what the bonding projects are. It's expected that the bonding bill that passed the State Senate this week could produce as many as 10,000 jobs in the state.The other thing that struck me this week was the diversity of issues we deal with here in St. Paul. This week, Chandler "Harry" Stevens of Austin was in St. Paul to testify before a Senate committee. This past December, Harry served as one of Minnesota's 10 electors in the Electoral College. This was the same group that earned a footnote in history when one of the 10 cast a vote for John Edwards instead of John Kerry. Edwards was Kerry's vice-presidential running mate.That was the first time in history that an elector snubbed the winner of their state's popular vote. Kerry, who beat President Bush overall in Minnesota, wound up with nine of the state's electoral votes. We don't know who cast the Edwards ballot because electors don't sign their ballots. Instead, electors simply write their candidate's name on an 8 1/2-inch-by-11-inch sheet of paper and put the ballots in a pine box. Once all votes are in, the Minnesota Secretary of State (currently Mary Kiffmeyer) and an aide pull them out, count them and announce the total. A tally sheet was sent to Congress, which announced nationwide totals in January. To date, no one has stepped forward to claim credit (or blame) for the Edwards vote. The elector actually wrote the wrong name, spelled it incorrectly and really just made a blunder. This is more apparent because in his testimony, Harry brought with him a copy of another ballot from an elector which listed both John Kerry and John Edwards on the ballot. That ballot was counted as a vote for Kerry by the Secretary of State. Just to be clear of how he voted Harry also had his ballot for viewing. After all this became public, Harry approached me with an idea about making the process more open and transparent. He suggested that electors vote in public and speak the name of the candidate before confirming it in writing. The suggestion made sense to me and I agreed to author the bill in the House.Sen. Wes Skoglund, of Minneapolis, was also interested in this electoral process and had two bills he was introducing in the senate. Senator Skoglund was excited to work with me on this bill as I had the right constituent to bring in for testimony. This all came to the senate committee on Wednesday afternoon of this past week where Harry testified. After discussion and suggestions for improving the language, a bill was passed out of that committee. This is a reminder of just how much power we all have. Harry was troubled enough by the result that he took action to change it. He told me if they can have a revote in the Ukraine, we should certainly be able do it here in Minnesota. I agree. I'll keep you informed of the progress of the bill and let you know how it turns out.In the meantime, if you have ideas or concerns you want to share about the state's budget debate or any other issue, please don't hesitate to call or write. I can be reached by phone at 1-888-682-3180, by mail at 231 State Office Building, 100 Martin Luther King Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155 or via e-mail at rep.jeanne.poppe@house.mn.

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