Posters warning poll workers to be on the lookout for
shaved heads and the smell of flower water will be absent from many
polling places across Minnesota today in the midst of a dispute between
Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer and local election officials. The
cautionary posters, issued last week by Kiffmeyer in conjunction with
state homeland security officials, are meant to be a line of defense
against terrorist attacks. But no other state apparently has produced
such warnings on the eve of elections, and many local elections
officials in Minnesota say they may unduly raise alarms among poll
workers and unfairly single out certain voters. So some local officials
are simply refusing to distribute the posters."Frankly, it smacks of
profiling," said Pat O'Connor, Hennepin's lead election official. One
DFL state senator labeled the warnings as "bizarre" and a possible
"Chicken Little attempt" to discourage people from voting.[more ]