On Tuesday night, roughly 100 people gathered at Maplewood City Hall to hear a debate on the proposed constitutional amendment requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls.

On Tuesday night there will be a debate on the proposed constitutional amendment requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. But the lineup of individuals slated to discuss the merits of the proposal has changed significantly in recent days.

Democrats in Minnesota have been slow to rise to the redistricting fight this time around. During session, DFL caucuses in the Minnesota House and Senate passed on the chance to produce maps to counter a GOP majority proposal that pitted 26 incumbents against one another, the vast majority of them DFLers.

In the 1990s he served as the state's emergency management director under Republican Gov. Arne Carlson. Aasen then joined the administration of Independence Party Gov. Jesse Ventura as assistant commissioner of the Department of Public Safety. He subsequently served as director of government relations for Ventura during a time of unprecedented tri-partisan control at the Capitol, with Republicans running the House and Democrats controlling the Senate.

Election law, once the province of civics wonks, has increasingly become the stuff of partisan political food fights. The topic will be joined once again this Friday morning, when a public hearing will be held on the proposed rule changes in Minnesota election law submitted by Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.

The Center of the American Experiment is out with a new report, "No Longer a National Model: Fifteen Recommendations for Fixing Minnesota Election Law and Practice."