Michigan House approves bipartisan election reform bills

(The Center Square) – The Michigan House of Representatives on Wednesday approved two packages of bills to initiate an early spring cleaning of the state’s voter rolls.

The bipartisan House Bills 4127, 4128, 4129, 4130, and 4131 and House Bills 4134 and 4135 call for removing outdated, incomplete or obsolete voter registrations, improving the absentee ballot counting process, and increased accountability for local election clerks.

An audit conducted in 2019 of the Bureau of Elections concluded some of the state’s voter rolls included registrations of individuals who would have been 120 years old. During the 2020 general election, the Secretary of State’s office mailed absentee ballot applications addressed to residents who have been deceased for years.

“Despite the Auditor General’s finding that the qualified voter list needed clean up, the Secretary of State mailed millions of unsolicited absentee ballot applications,” Rep. Matt Hall, R-Marshall, said in a statement. “When you have that many ballots going out to addresses and such a large portion of the voter list in question due to the factors the Auditor General disclosed, it creates issues. It jeopardizes trust and integrity. And people lose confidence in the free and fair elections that are a pillar of our democracy.”

Last week, Michigan Court of Claims Judge Christopher Murray ruled Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson violated the state’s Administrative Procedures Act when she implemented her own ballot signature matching guidelines for absentee voters.

“I’m glad the court sees Secretary of State Benson’s attempts at lawmaking for what they are – clear violations of her authority,” Matt Hall, R-Marshall, said in a statement. ”If she wants to make changes like these, she needs to work with the Legislature or properly promulgate them through the laws we have on the books – in this case the Administrative Procedures Act.”

Claiming Benson has consistently ignored the legislative process, Hall continued: “She issued a mandatory directive requiring local election officials to apply a presumption of validity to all signatures on absent voter ballots, but there is nothing within state law allowing for that type of power from her position. As a result, this directive was found to be not in accordance with our laws and not valid.”

Other measures in the bill package approved by the House would:

Allow a city or township to expand the size of its election precincts to account for the drop-off in the number of people voting in person. Current law limits election precincts to 2,999 registered voters. The new reforms would allow precincts to contain up to 5,000 registered voters, freeing up more equipment and staff to process absentee ballots.Require any city or township with more than one precinct to establish an absent voter counting board.Require the Secretary of State to publish a list on its website of local clerks who are not up to date with their required continuing education or training.Adjust due dates and deadlines for reviewing certain types of campaign finance statements and lobby reports, providing Bureau of Election employees a reasonable amount of time to review the documents by the deadline in state law.

“These are common-sense reforms that won bipartisan support because they will help our elections run more smoothly, improve integrity and add accountability,” Rep. David W. Martin, R-Davison, said in a statement. “This isn’t a partisan issue – it’s the right thing to do to make our system more secure and make sure the public will have confidence in future elections.”

If passed into law, the House’s plan establishes procedures to update or remove records in the qualified voter file if it’s been determined an individual hasn’t voted since the 2000 November general election, or if the individual has a placeholder – or unspecified – date of birth.

“Keeping a person’s name on our voter rolls long after they pass away or move out of state is a bad practice, plain and simple,” Martin said. “We’re taking action to clean up the list while making sure each and every eligible voter continues to have their voice heard.”

The bills will advance to the Senate for further consideration.

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