voting
‘A historic new chapter for voting’: MI Senate panel holds first hearing on election reform package
A package of bills that would implement election reforms passed by voters last year got their first hearing Wednesday before the Michigan Senate Elections and Ethics Committee. Chaired by Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield), the committee heard from election officials and experts on the eight bills that would, among other things, create a minimum of nine […]
Michigan House Elections Committee advances national popular vote legislation
Michigan’s Democratic-led House Elections Committee voted 6-2 along party lines Tuesday to advance legislation that would commit the state to awarding its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote. House Bills 4156 and 4440, both sponsored by Rep. Carrie Rheingans (D-Ann Arbor), would add Michigan’s 15 Electoral College votes to […]
GOP-led states plan new voter data systems to replace one they rejected. Good luck with that.
So far this year, seven states, all Republican-led, have left the Electronic Registration Information Center, an interstate compact for sharing voter registration data, and more could follow. Amid the exodus, some states, including Texas and Virginia, have said they plan to create their own data-sharing networks to replace ERIC. Pledging to build a new system […]
16-year-olds could be pre-registered to vote under Michigan legislation
A bill in the Michigan Legislature would allow for 16-year-old Michiganders to become pre-registered to vote. HB 4596, sponsored by state Rep. Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City), seeks to improve youth voter turnout by pre-registering at a younger age. Coffia said that 16 is an age when people begin to take on their first legal responsibilities, […]
Senate committee OKs bill to create online tracking system for absentee voting
The Michigan Senate Elections Committee this week approved bills that would seek to streamline the absentee voting process by creating an online tracking system for applications and the ballots themselves. SB 339, sponsored by Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D- Royal Oak), would allow voters to track their absentee ballot at every step of the process, from […]
Why Republican-led states keep leaving a group that verifies voter rolls
Eight Republican-led states this year left an interstate cooperative that seeks to maintain accurate voter registration rolls, and three more may join them — a move that election security experts say is fueled by conspiracy theories. Earlier this month, Virginia’s top election official said the state would become the latest to stop participating in the […]
State canvassers approve upgrade to Dominion voting systems
The Michigan Board of State Canvassers on Friday approved certifying an upgrade to the voting machines used across most of the state. The board met in Lansing for its monthly session with only two items on the agenda. The first was the certification of an upgrade to the Dominion Voting System tabulators used by 65 […]
New: Former Republicans seek to create new centrist party and utilize fusion voting in Michigan
Calling the alliance of disaffected Republicans and moderate Democrats “short-term triage,” a former leader of Michigan Republicans says he and other pro-democracy conservatives plan to form a new party and then challenge the state’s ban on what’s known as fusion voting. Jeff Timmer, the one-time executive director of the Michigan Republican Party, told the Advance […]
A GOP claim that Michigan purposely tried to encourage voter fraud doesn’t fit with facts
Updated, 3:32 p.m., 5/5/23 Republicans at a recent congressional hearing accused Michigan’s chief election official of deliberately leaving tens of thousands of dead voters on the rolls in order to encourage illegal voting. Even at a time of intense partisan conflict over election policies, it was a strikingly direct charge against a sitting official — […]
Study: Michigan youth turnout far outpaced the national average in the 2022 election
Michigan had the highest youth voter turnout rate of any state in the 2022 midterm election — 36.5%, more than 13 percentage points higher than the national youth voter turnout estimated at 23%. That’s according to new data released by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University’s […]
Federal agencies lag in registering voters despite Biden executive order, advocates say
Within weeks of taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order — hailed by voter advocates as potentially transformative — that for the first time committed the U.S. government to registering new voters at federal agencies. But just over two years later, most of the 10 agencies examined in a recent report had made […]
Bipartisan former members of Congress call for boost in funding to secure elections
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of former U.S. lawmakers on the National Council on Election Integrity called on Congress on Friday to spend $400 million on election integrity to insulate the system from foreign interference. “The Department of Homeland Security designated our election system as critical infrastructure in 2017,” the four wrote in a letter. “However, […]