House passage will clear the way for Whitmer’s signature into law
By Kristine Christlieb, Senior Correspondent, Michigan Fair Elections | December 9, 2024
A Michigan House bill package — 18 months in the making, crafted by progressive legal experts, and backed by Michigan’s top Democrat leaders — passed out of committee and is heading to the House floor for a vote.
Following more than 90 minutes of testimony on Tuesday, Michigan’s House Elections Committee, composed of six Democrats and two Republicans, voted along party lines to send the historic package of four bills known collectively as the Michigan Voter Rights Act (MVRA) to the final step in the legislative process before being signed into law.
Testimony from Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and others emphasized the legislation’s fulfillment of democracy’s one-man-one-vote promise; but critics, including some clerks, digging into the details of the bills, saw major problems.
MVRA’s façade of “voting rights”
The Michigan Voter Rights Act is composed of Senate Bills 401, 402, 403, and 404, first introduced to the Senate in June 2023 and passed by the Senate in September 2024.
Its passage has been heavily promoted by the Secretary of State’s office. The department’s website published an MVRA webpage created specifically to promote this legislation. It includes a Fact Sheet, sample letters to the editor, social media graphics, and a press release with recommended photos.
One of the photos the Secretary of State’s office recommended
In her 2023 press release, Benson claimed the legislation was necessary because the 1965 federal Voting Rights Act had been “gutted” by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). Referring to the Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder, Benson said the 2013 decision dealt “a significant blow to the hard-fought rights under the law.” MVRA would protect Michiganders from future predations of the federal government and SCOTUS.
Michigan’s State Department offers the following brief descriptions:
Senate Bill 401 — creates a state voting rights act.
Senate Bill 402 — creates a voting and elections database and institute act.
Senate Bill 403 — creates a language assistance for elections act.
Senate Bill 404 — provides for voter access and assistance provisions.
After the package of bills was passed in the Senate in September, Pure Integrity Michigan Elections Founder and Chair Patrice Johnson sounded the alarm, describing the potential negative impacts of SB401.
Buried within the 36-page bill, Johnson warned, are provisions that:
empower court-appointed monitors to oversee local elections.
open the door to ranked choice voting.
force local governments to notify the secretary of state's office before changing so much as the location of a ballot drop box.
allow reparations for past offenses.
fund the expenses of "protected class" candidates to run for office.
create new and ambiguous “protected classes” of individuals who are members of a racial, color, or language minority group, or 2 or more racial, color, or language minority groups (SB401(VII) (i)).
open the door to funding the expenses of “protected class” candidates to run for office and to sue their local municipalities and clerks.
Clerk objections to MVRA
Michigan clerks who testified officially supported the legislation but voiced concerns, primarily about costs associated with SB403 and SB404. They sought reassurance taxpayers in their local jurisdictions would not have to bear the expenses associated with providing translators for more than seven different languages and excessive costs related to voter accessibility such as the construction of special lanes for drive-up voters.
Following testimony from representatives of the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks, the Committee’s Minority Vice Chair Rep. Rachelle Smit added the results of her own investigation to the record.
Smit told the Committee, “I did reach out to all of the clerks in my district I represent, and there wasn’t one clerk that was supportive of this. They have a lot of concerns, and what I feel could be the effect of this is we see a huge exodus of clerks. And that’s a problem. That would be a very big problem for Michigan.”
In September, Senator Ruth Johnson expressed concerns about SB404 to Michigan Fair Elections Institute, saying. “These bills would cost taxpayers millions of dollars and create new obstacles for our clerks and local units of government that are simply unnecessary.” She argued the bills go beyond existing federal and state voting rights protections and would establish an excessive bureaucracy.
In the past two years, Michigan has seen dramatic changes in its election laws. If Michigan legislators have their way and pass the Michigan Voter Rights Act, the previous changes may pale in comparison.
Kristine Christlieb serves as senior correspondent on MFE's communications team. She publishes Trust but Verify on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/trustbutverifyreport/p/voter-registration-blitzkrieg?r=2haa2x&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Learn how We The People can win back and secure OUR Future.
Join us Thursday, December 12, at 12 PM for
the weekly Coalition Task Force Meeting
To attend this meeting, use the Registration link below . It changes weekly.
After registering, you will receive an email with details on how to join the meeting.
Note: No representatives of the media are allowed in our meetings.
Important Notes and Disclaimers for Election Integrity Network National Working Groups and coalition calls
We operate under strict 501 (c)(4) non-profit, non-partisan guidelines. Please do not make any comments during the call or in the chat that are directly related to any campaign or candidate running for office or could be considered an endorsement or opposition of that candidate.
All calls are “off the record.” This means that no members of the media are allowed on our calls and this rule also applies to participants. No comment or presentation can be shared outside of the call without the express permission of the speaker. No recording can be made of the call without express permission from the moderator- this includes closed captioning.
We always welcome new participants but ask that all newcomers register with their own registration link. Please do not forward your personal link to another participant.
For the security of the call, if you join by phone, you may be asked to unmute and provide your name.
This meeting is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice or instruction to lobby on behalf of any issue or organization.
Please donate to Michigan Fair Elections
MFE is a fiercely independent, tax-exempt 501(c)3 charity. We rely on voluntary contributions to fund our important, and sometimes costly, work. Legal claims are sometimes essential to improve the government and protect citizen rights, and they can be expensive. MFE accepts no government funding.
Please support MFE's investigative research, honest journalism, and litigative actions to defend We the People's inalienable rights as protected in the U.S. Constitution. Donate today to assist our educational efforts to protect the principles of individual liberty in America.
Mark your calendars to attend Election Integrity Network's outstanding National Working Groups. Consider also serving as liaison to report to the Task Force Coalition on our Thursday News@Noon meetings.
A link to the full list of National Working Group Meetings is HERE (All meetings are noted in Eastern time.)
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the authors and do not reflect the official position of the Michigan Fair Elections Institute. Every article written by an MFEI author is generated by the author or editor alone. However, links or images embedded within the article, may have been generated by artificial intelligence.