House bills would change ballot petition filing, review process
Read the full article on the WZMQ19 website here.
By Sophia Murphy - June 26, 2024
LANSING, Mich. (WZMQ) – Lawmakers have a busy week, as they work to pass a long list of bills and the next state budget before they hope to adjourn for the summer. Scheduled for a vote this week are bills introduced by Representative Penelope Tsernoglu (D- East Lansing) back in March to streamline ballot petition procedures.
The increasing use of absentee ballots and the passage of early voting laws brought out over a million early voters for this February’s primary election. That increased voter turnout has created new burdens for state officials working on ballot petitions.
Earlier this month, Policy Counselor with Promote the Vote Michigan, Melanie Macey, testified in favor of the legislation to the Michigan House of Representatives Elections Committee.
“It really made sense to kind of take a holistic look at what the petition process is and we believe that the resulting changes will be a huge improvement for all of the parties,” Macey said. “The amendments here proposed both simplify the existing provisions, but also fill in the gaps where information is missing or where the process isn’t clear in the law.”
In 2022, the increase in election participation meant the State Bureau of Elections recieved 70,000 fraudulent signatures on ballot initiatives, with no clear procedure in place to handle the influx.
The Board of State Canvassers decided to convene a work group made up of bi-partisan election lawyers and experts to inform lawmakers of updates and changes that could simplify the process to aid the Department of State.
Some of the bills will just be putting into law the procedures already followed by the board and the Bureau of Elections, like allowing the use of random sampling to check signatures on petitions. Others will make changes to ease the petition process for voters, like changing the original application forms submitted to the state at the start of the process. That portion of the legislation will also change compliance standards for petitions once signatures are gathered and submitted, changing from strict compliance to a substantial compliance standard.
“We support the idea that voters should be presented with clear, easy-to-read and understand. petition form. and that sponsors of ballot proposals and initiatives shouldn’t be forced to argue endlessly about font size or the minutiae of how things are placed.” Macey sid. “It makes sense to have the form be more streamlined with fewer of those kind of gotcha type rules just to ensure that the will of michigan voters isn’t subverted by technicalities.”
The legislation is scheduled for a vote in the house tomorrow, alongside over 50 other bills including the state budget, all of which the lawmakers hope to address before the end of the week.
