A campaign to tighten Michigan’s voter ID and registration laws hit a roadblock this week on its path to the November ballot.
The proposed constitutional amendment would require voters to show proof of citizenship to register to vote instead of checking a box affirming citizenship under the threat of perjury.
The amendment would also mean voters need to show a photo ID either at the polls, or to officials within six days following an election, to have their vote counted.
To get its question before voters, Americans for Citizen Voting-Michigan turned in far more petition signatures than required to get on the ballot so it would have a cushion in case some were ruled invalid.
But a new nonpartisan state Bureau of Elections staff report published Monday found the group still fell slightly short, based on a 1,000-signature sample. The campaign needed at least 629 valid signatures in the sample. The report found 612.
Kristin Combs, a strategist working with the campaign, said workers spent a lot of resources checking signatures before submitting them to elections staff. The campaign plans to fight the finding at a Board of State Canvassers meeting on Monday.
“We really feel like they missed the mark here and we plan to do everything we can to show them on Monday that the 700,000 Michiganders that signed our petition deserve to have a vote on it,” Combs said in an interview.
Signatures were deemed invalid for a variety of reasons, including signers not being registered voters in the municipality listed, people signing the petition twice, and signatures not matching the state’s election records.
Combs said too many were wrongly thrown out.
“Some of these people may have registered to vote 40 years ago. And so, I think their signature probably looks quite different than it did 40 years ago,” Combs said.
“Additionally, someone signing a petition at a grocery store with a baby one arm and a bag of groceries in another is going to have a very different looking signatures than if they’re sitting at the Secretary of State’s office.”
To get on the ballot, Americans for Citizen Voting needs to convince the Board of State Canvassers to accept at least 17 more signatures in its sample.
Promote the Vote Action, an opposing campaign that challenged the sample’s signatures, will be fighting that. Micheal Davis Jr. is with the group’s leadership. He said the staff’s findings are an example of “checks and balances” working.
“When folks are unfamiliar with the Michigan Constitution and the rules that govern citizen-led initiatives, then they tend to run afoul of meeting the threshold,” Davis said.
Both sides of the petition battle are predicting the matter could end up in court, regardless of how Monday’s meeting goes.
