Voting rights groups warn Michigan lawmakers that a suite of new election law proposals avoids existing problems while creating further confusion and more barriers to the ballot box.
The groups–including Common Cause Michigan, Demos, Fair Elections Legal Network, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Project Vote–submitted opposing testimony to the House Committee on Redistricting and Elections today. The bills, Senate bills 751, 754, and 803, would affect voter registration, list maintenance, and election challenger rules.
The groups caution that the June 1 effective date of these bills would not only hamper voter registration efforts, but the new rules could create confusion among poll workers and election administrators during the August primary.
“Problems with voter registration, absentee ballots, confusion over voter identification requirements, deceptive voting practices, aggressive challenges, and voting machine breakdowns, among others, have led to the disenfranchisement of too many eligible voters,” the groups testify. “Instead of addressing these real problems with Michigan’s election system, SB 754, SB 751, and SB 803 address phantom problems that will only serve to create further confusion and needlessly erect barriers to the ballot box. We urge this committee to reject these bills and work on bi-partisan reforms that will ensure all Michigan voters have true access to our most fundamental right, the right to vote.”
UPDATE: Read Project Vote election counsel, Pat Selby’s account of today’s testimony here.