When you think of constitutional amendments in Minnesota, think pink.
Local ballot questions? Blue, of course. Nonpartisan county offices? Canary, naturally. Goldenrod, buff and green apply respectively to school bond issues, school board races and city offices.
These are the colors once assigned to paper ballots for different levels of governments or types of elections. The political palette lives on in state law and in the memories of some election officials -- but not at your local polling place. While a few township voters still may ink in their choices on colorful sheets, the optical scanner ushered in black-on-white ballots with all the style of a standardized test.
Oh, for the days of multicolored ballots, marked and counted by hand!
"Different people were responsible for preparing ballots," said Gary Poser, the state's elections director in the secretary of state's office. An absentee voter might receive a technicolor package of color-coded ballots, and polling places might have boxes for each of the colors.
And yes, constitutional amendments -- changes to the state's founding document -- were printed on pink ballots. State statutes, 204D.11, subdivision 2, still reads: "Amendments to the state Constitution shall be placed on a ballot printed on pink paper which shall be known as the 'pink ballot.' "
Joan Growe, who served as secretary of state from 1975 to 1999, inherited the multicolored paper ballot system and presided over its gradual replacement.
"I think it was a way of helping people who were counting, and helping voters," she said. She recalled that she learned "it's not yellow, it's canary," and that "nobody really wanted to be on a pink ballot." If a new color scheme were to be selected, she speculated it might be more hip -- mauve, coral and rust, perhaps?
