After meeting with Republican critics on Thursday, DFL Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said that he will not "take a step backward" on online voter registration.
"To your request that we take this service away from citizens, we cannot agree," Ritchie wrote to Republican lawmakers.
Last month, Ritchie launched on website that allows Minnesotans to register to vote online.
Since then, Republicans, key Democrats, the state's non-partisan legal staff and legislative auditor have raised questions about why he did it without specific legislative enabling language. He has said he had the authority without lawmakers' sign off thanks to existing Minnesota law.
On Thursday, Ritchie met with Republican Senate Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson, and Rep. Tim Sanders, R-Blaine, to talk through some of their concerns.
"There are questions that need to be answered," Hann said afterwards, stressing the need for assurance that the system is secure. He and the other lawmakers said they did not oppose the idea of online registration but wanted to see it done right.
The lawmakers left with the impression that Ritchie would share the internal legal analysis he had done that gave him the assurance that he could create the system without instruction to do so from the Legislature. Ritchie's office has declined to release that analysis thus far and told the Star Tribune that he would not waive attorney-client privilege to release it. On Thursday, Nathan Bowie, Ritchie's spokesman, said that the office continues to maintain it would not release the analysis.
The analysis is key because bipartisan and nonpartisan experts have said the system should be vetted through the Legislature.
