GOP voting bills blasted by business leaders, NAACP, Mayor Duggan

On Apr 14, 2021

LANSING – A package of GOP-sponsored election bills was hammered by criticism Tuesday, called out in an early-morning statement issued by three dozen Michigan corporate leaders, and blasted again by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and the head of the Detroit NAACP at an afternoon Capitol rally.

Amid the scathing reviews, a Republican sponsor of the 39-bill package said he does not believe the legislation would suppress voting or voting rights and he does not understand what the fuss is about.

A Senate committee is expected to begin work on the bills Wednesday.

The leaders of three dozen major Michigan companies, including General Motors, Ford, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Quicken Loans, issued a joint statement that denounced voter suppression efforts in Michigan and other states, without singling out any specific bills.

“We represent Michigan’s largest companies, many of which operate on a national basis. We feel a responsibility to add our voice as changes are proposed to voting laws in Michigan and other states,” said the statement, also signed by the Detroit Lions, Detroit Pistons, Ilitch Holdings, DTE Energy, Penske Corp., Henry Ford Health Systems, and the Detroit Regional Chamber.

The statement by Michigan corporate leaders follows widespread outrage and boycotts over a package of election bills that were made law in Georgia.

The Michigan bills are seen as part of a national effort by Republican Legislatures to push back against voter access measures that contributed to record turnout across the U.S. in November, when Democrats made extensive use of absentee ballots, amid the coronavirus pandemic, to oust Republican President Donald Trump.

Among other changes, the bills would require absentee voters to mail in a paper copy of their ID with their ballot application, shorten the deadline for returning absentee ballots via drop boxes, bar clerks from purchasing prepaid postage for absentee ballot return envelopes and limit the secretary of state’s ability to help voters request an absentee ballot, require video surveillance of drop boxes for absentee ballots and allow only political parties to designate election challengers.

“We’ve lost too much blood, we’ve sweated too many tears, we’ve cried too many nights, for them to do this in the bright of day,” the Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit branch of the NAACP, said at a rally that drew more than 100 people to the Capitol in Lansing.

State Republicans, who have portrayed the bills as election reform rather than suppression, point to proposals that would allow teenagers as young as 16 to pre-register to vote, permit members of the military deployed during an election to cast a ballot electronically, provide training for election challengers, and establish a single day of in-person early voting.

‘I was surprised that the entire package has just been treated so dismissively,” said state Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan. “Disappointed, I suppose, is the better term.”

Though the action starts in the Senate Elections Committee, inside the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, it is likely the fight over the most controversial bills will not be resolved in the Legislature, or in the office of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, across the street.

Whitmer has promised to veto any bills that restrict voting rights, but Republicans are also discussing a voter initiative under the Michigan Constitution that would allow them to circumvent Whitmer’s veto. If a petition initiative gathers at least 340,000 signatures, the Legislature can adopt any proposed law without the approval of the governor.

Democrats are discussing a possible separate voter initiative to counter that move.

Court fights are also a possibility, as Democrats contend some of the proposals violate a sweeping constitutional amendment nearly 2.8 million Michigan voters approved in 2018 that, among other changes, approved any-reason absentee voting and an independent citizens redistricting commission.

More:Michigan’s clerks have a lot to say about the GOP’s 39 election reform bills

More:GOP lawmakers say their election bills will make it easier to vote. A fact check

The statement from the corporate leaders set out a number of shared principles, including:

The right to vote is a sacred, inviolable right of American citizens.
Democracy is strongest when participation is greatest.
Safe and secure voting options are vital
Government must support equitable access to the ballot.
Government must avoid actions that reduce participation in elections, particularly among historically disenfranchised communities.
Election laws must be developed in a bipartisan fashion.

The statement from the Michigan companies did not cite specific bills the companies oppose. But Duggan did, in a Tuesday speech on the steps of the Capitol, at the demonstration sponsored by the NAACP, which drew more than 100 people.

“These bills are morally reprehensible actions to try to keep people from voting because they won’t vote the way the sponsors want them to,” Duggan told the crowd.

He cited several features he said would make it more difficult to vote, particularly in Detroit, where many residents are low-income.

Senate Bill 310, he noted, would prohibit Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson from sending applications for absentee ballots to every registered voter, as she did in 2020.

SB 285 would require voters seeking absentee ballots by mail to include photocopies of their driver’s licenses or state ID cards. “Who has a Xerox machine around their house?” Duggan asked.

SB 287 would prohibit prepaid postage for mailing absentee ballots, which he said can cost 71 cents and possibly more, depending on the length of the ballot in various counties.

And SB 273, which Duggan said was aimed specifically at Detroit, would require for jurisdictions that had absentee ballot drop boxes before Jan. 1 of this year, approval of drop boxes by the local board of canvassers, which has equal representation from both political parties.

Duggan said the bill would require a board supermajority — both Democrats and both Republicans — to approve ballot drop boxes.

Under those requirements, “what do you think the chances are that there will be any drop boxes in the city of Detroit?” Duggan asked.

McBroom dismissed Duggan’s criticisms. He said the ban on sending absentee ballot applications to all voters addresses security concerns as well as costs, since hundreds of thousands of absentee ballot applications were sent to outdated addresses in 2020.

The ban on prepaid postage also addresses a security concern, McBroom said. That is the potential for “ballot harvesting,” through which political operatives can collect and turn in large numbers of ballots, he said.

As for SB 273, McBroom said Duggan has the intent of the bill all wrong. The local board of canvassers would only approve the physical characteristics of absentee ballot drop boxes, just as they already approve the ballot boxes used, he said. Local jurisdictions would decide how many absentee drop boxes to use, and where to place them, just as they did in 2020, he said.

McBroom said the intent of SB 273 was to require a simple majority — three of the four members of the board of canvassers — to approve the characteristics of the drop boxes. If Duggan is reading the bill to require four “yes” votes, McBroom said he is happy to amend it.

McBroom said he agrees 100% with the election principles spelled out Tuesday by Michigan’s corporate leaders. He just does not think any of the GOP bills violate those principles.

In the overall package, “there’s a lot of policy ideas in here that Democrats have supported in the past and seem like they would be fairly noncontroversial,” he said.

At Wednesday’s Senate committee hearing, no votes are expected — only testimony.

The committee is not immediately taking up bills from the Senate package that have garnered the most criticism but it will take up two bills passed in the House against the opposition of Democratic lawmakers that would require voters with unknown birth dates and those who have not voted for many years to take steps to ensure their registration isn’t canceled.

The committee also will consider bills from the Senate package that would allow county clerks to flag deceased voters in the voter file and require the secretary of state to collect information from multistate programs and partnerships used to verify voters’ addresses and registration status and publicly post the names of local clerks who are not current with their training.

On Tuesday, the House Elections and Ethics Committee met to consider election bills that have the support of election officials and lawmakers from both parties.

The committee advanced bills that would move primary elections from August to June beginning in 2023, a shift that would give clerks more time to prepare for the November general election. Another would allow county clerks — who maintain each county’s death records — to…