Last week Secretary of State Mark Ritchie offered up an innovative solution to the question of voter ID – an electronic poll book. So instead of asking someone to bring in a photo ID, the election judges would have access to electronic photo IDs, such as the Minnesota’s drivers’ license photo database.

It’s a win-win solution. It allows for photo IDs, which some folks want. And it keeps the barrier to vote low, which some folks like. (For some folks getting a state-issued picture ID can be problematic.) There are others benefits, as noted on The Uptake website…

Ritchie estimates such a system could be implemented in Minnesota for about $10 million. That’s about $30 million less than the estimated cost of a voter photo ID system advocated by Republicans last legislative session.

According to Ritchie, the electronic poll book system could also give people more flexibility for where and when they vote — even allowing you to vote in another county if you can’t make it home for election day. “So this technology (electronic poll book), not so much this (the paper), but would allow that person who doesn’t know you in Kittson County, but who could look at your picture and say ‘hey you’re pretty good looking’, you know because it’s five years old, and say we know your precinct and we can use our ballot printer to print out your exact ballot, finish your procedure and then mark in there that you have cast your ballot and go from there.”

One drawback, also noted in the article is ubiquitous broadband – but to me this is just another application that makes the case for deploying ubiquitous broadband, not an excuse to not deploy money-saving strategies that make things easier for Minnesota residents.