Kathy Bonnifield, Executive Director of Citizens for Election Integrity, emphasizes that the debate on the seriously flawed "Photo ID" Amendment ignores the high costs to both the state of Minnesota's budget and to that of counties.  Minnesota Management and Budget estimates that first year local costs will be between $8.3 million and $23.3 million.

Bonnifield notes that provisional "ballots will need to be stored in a secure location after Election Day and those handling the provisional ballots after Election Day will be required to have a complete understanding of how to respond to a provisional voter coming to the facility.  We also know that two election judges of two different parties would need to handle the provisional ballots."  

Smaller townships would face the cost of opening their offices to create business hours for people to bring proof of their identity.  Kent Sulum of the Minnesota Association of townships estimates that staffing the business hours could cost as much as $3.1 million a year statewide.

The cost for implementing the Voter Suppression Amendment at the state level is estimated to be up to $84 million over three years.  In a June talk, MN Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said that it would cost $50 million to create an adequate system for provisional balloting and $10 to $15 million a year to run the system.  This would be for a system that would allow the polling places to enter data and connect to the databases that verify voter eligibility.