Supreme Court hears voter ID case

Minnesota Supreme Court justices must now decide whether the voter ID constitutional amendment gets on the statewide ballot in its current form.

Six of the seven justices heard oral arguments today in the lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters Minnesota and several other groups. Those amendment opponents claim the ballot question is too vague and misleading. Their attorney, Bill Pentelovitch, told justices that the biggest omission is no mention of a new provisional balloting system.

"The ballot question should at least give as much information as you would expect somebody, a consumer, a voter to get if they were going to buy a car or buy a house," Pentelovitch said. "You would expect somebody not to lie to them and to at least tell them about the major things going on here, and this ballot question doesn't do that."

A lawyer for the Minnesota Legislature defended the ballot question. Thomas Boyd said the courts have previously given legislators wide latitude in the presentation of constitutional amendments.

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"Concise statements, imperfect summaries, so on and so forth, they will not always contain every aspect of its subject," Boyd said. "But the constitution says it's the legislature and the Legislature alone that gets to formulate that brief summary."

A ruling in the case could come next month.

Here is the audio from the the hearing in two parts: