Thirty minutes into Tuesday’s secretary of state candidate debate at the University of Minnesota’s East Bank campus, the three challengers—DFLer Mark Ritchie, Independence Party endorsee Joel Spoonheim, and Independent Bruce Kennedy—had already settled into a comfortable series of salvos criticizing incumbent Mary Kiffmeyer, when something shocking occurred. Kiffmeyer actually showed up.

The two-term Republican secretary of state, who has been a no-show at several scheduled debates since the September 11 primary election, rushed into the room just as Ritchie was detailing ways to improve voter turnout among college students. A representative from the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG), which hosted the forum, interrupted the proceedings, found a chair for Kiffmeyer at the end of the table, and the visibly flustered secretary of state joined the fray, explaining she was returning from Duluth and decided at the last minute to attend.

Earlier, Ritchie had called the secretary of state race a “battle over democracy,” noting that Florida and Ohio secretaries of state had already shown that they “can pick a president” and that Kiffmeyer was not afraid to “manipulate the outcome of elections” by erecting barriers that discouraged voters.

Spoonheim blamed both major parties for their partisan behavior and promised that, because he was an independent, “Your votes are going to count.” And Kennedy, a Roseville attorney, blasted Kiffmeyer for her support of the federal Help America Vote Act, which he said cost too much to implement.

The discussion became less politically charged with Kiffmeyer at the table, though Kennedy directly criticized her unwillingness to support Roseville’s request to try Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) in a recent special City Council election and challenged her statement that IRV dampened participation.

“Where did IRV dampen participation?” he asked, arguing that everywhere the ranked voting system has been instituted, voter turnout has increased.

Kiffmeyer declined to respond to the question, but she was not shy about trumpeting her accomplishments, including the creation of an election judge training program, absentee ballot voting drives, and a planned online voter’s guide. “We’ve made tremendous progress over the past eight years,” she said.

On the problem of long lines at polling places, Kiffmeyer said communities simply need to recruit and train more election judges. “That’s a local decision,” she said. And on removing the barriers that discourage young voters from participating, she argued that it was up to the voters to stay informed on the voting process. “These are smart kids. There’s no surprise that we’re having an election,” she said. “It’s an issue of personal responsibility.”

Kiffmeyer also defended her support for a law that would make it mandatory for voters to show their driver’s license or other state identification card before being allowed to vote, a measure that Ritchie argued was a politically motivated move that was “designed to discourage people from voting.”

Immigration is a “hot button” issue this year, Ritchie explained, and the Republicans are pushing the voter I.D. law as a way of mobilizing their base. “We need to surface what the real issue is here.”

Spoonheim was even more blunt, calling the law an unconstitutional “poll tax,” before asking members of the audience of about 50 to raise their hands if they knew someone with a fake I.D. A dozen or so raised their hands.

All the candidates agreed on the need for a paper ballot and tamper-proof election technology, but Ritchie noted that it took a “war” in the Legislature to keep electronic voting machines out of the state and warned that the near-monopoly on the technology by a few select companies could lead to problems in the future. “The system is always going to be vulnerable,” he said.

Those companies, including ES&S, whose machines handle Minnesota ballot-counting, are all certified by the federal government, said Kiffmeyer. And if any irregularities appear, state law mandates a hand-tallied recount. As a result, the state’s error rate, she said, “is almost zero.”

Ritchie declined to directly challenge Kiffmeyer on her management of the office, an issue he has raised repeatedly in press conferences and campaign statements in recent months. On at least a couple of those occasions, Kiffmeyer had actually responded by following Ritchie’s advice, leading some observers to question whether the challenger had already assumed control of the office.

On this evening, however, incumbent and challengers chose to keep their sparring to a minimum, perhaps a result of Kiffmeyer’s awkward entrance or the sparse crowd. In any event, the candidates will get an opportunity to become better acquainted in the days ahead as two more debates have already been scheduled. Whether they’re penciled in on Kiffmeyer’s calendar, of course, remains to be seen.