GREG MARKKANEN
IRON MOUNTAIN – Democratic legislation that passed the Michigan House last week along partisan lines has drawn criticism from state Rep. Greg Markkanen, R-Hancock, who says it removes key election security provisions from state law.
Senate Bills 603 and 604 alter the requirements for requesting vote recounts. The bills also increase recount filing fees and clarify that county canvassers do not have the authority to investigate voter fraud, leaving that authority to law enforcement, the Michigan Advance reported.
Supporters of the legislation say it highlights the distinction between recounts and proper criminal investigations, according to Bridge Michigan.
“We have other areas of the law that talk about fraud, that talk about manipulation, but when we talk about a recount … let’s make sure that what we are talking about with a recount is the actual count of the votes,” said the sponsoring senator. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, in testimony before the committee in March.
Generally, for precincts in which the vote difference between the petitioner and the winning candidate is less than 50 votes, or 0.5% of the total number of votes cast, the recount filing fee is $25. The new legislation would increase this fee to $50 per district.
ED McBROOM
For electoral districts where the vote differential is greater than 50 votes, or 0.5% of the total number of votes cast, the deposit would be more expensive and would vary depending on the type of election and the margin of the vote differential.
Markkanen, in a news release, said it is wrong to reject fraud as grounds for a recount.
“Somehow the Democrats got it into their heads that if everyone clicked their heels and sang ‘there’s no place like home,’ the world would be filled with rainbows and sunshine, and all crime would magically disappear,” he said. “Things don’t work like that in the real world. Passing a law that paralyzes the checks and balances of our electoral system only further deepens public distrust. The world is full of bad people who can do bad things, including derailing our elections. Our system must be robust and equipped with all the necessary tools to discover and investigate all discrepancies.”
In March, the Republican National Committee sued Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, in an attempt to force her to reduce the state’s voter rolls.
Markkanen said Michigan now has more registered voters than people over the age of 18, putting the state’s voter registration rate at 102.8%.
“If Secretary Benson is going to continue to boast about a 102% success rate, I think she should consider coaching the Tigers or the Pistons. I would love to see how he manages to win more games than the teams have scheduled,” Markkanen said.
Benson has denounced the RNC’s lawsuit as baseless and “filled with unfounded accusations.”
Voter lists often include outdated records, since most voters are not removed from the system when they move. To prevent otherwise eligible voters from being removed, federal law requires officials to wait several election cycles before removing inactive voters from the rolls.
Michigan law also makes voting twice in the same election a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.
Meanwhile, in the Michigan Senate, state Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Waucedah Township, voted Thursday against reporting out of committee a series of “voting rights” bills that he says impose burdens additions to local government units and local officials.
“This legislation called the ‘State Voting Rights Act’ is intended to protect voting rights, but our right to vote is already well protected by the Michigan Constitution. Passing more laws is redundant and only creates confusion,” McBroom said.
Senate Bills 401 and 404 would impose new mandates on local units of government and local clerks and expose clerks and local governments to new lawsuits, he said.
“Election security is important and stopping voter suppression is important, and we have good laws that do both,” McBroom said in a news release. “These bills are bad policy not only because they are costly and unnecessary, but because they are harmful to our electoral process and to our neighbors who serve as clerks and poll workers.”
Supporters of the legislation say the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been increasingly weakened over the past decade.
As Michigan Advance reported, the Senate bills would make it state law that local governments and state agencies are required to enact policies that do not prevent certain groups of people, such as minorities or the disabled, from voting. The bills also outline what violations can look like and how people can seek redress.
According to “PBS News Hour,” a 2022 audit by Detroit Disability Power found that only 16% of polling places in metro Detroit were fully accessible or free of voting impediments. In many cases, it was only a barrier or access impediment that prevented the location from being fully accessible, according to the report.
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