To the editor:
Perhaps you have been asked on a downtown street or in front of the library to sign a petition called Secure MI Vote. If you’re like me, that sounds like a no brainer. Securing everyone’s right to vote is something we at the League of Women Voters take seriously. After all, it’s integral to our mission to empower voters. Our goal is for every person to have the desire, right, knowledge, and confidence to participate in our democracy.
So when asked to sign the Secure MI Vote petition, I was sure to say yes until I started asking questions. It didn’t take long before I realized the goal of the campaign is to restrict access to voting, not expand it. The ballot initiative seeks to use a loophole in the MI constitution to enact legislation without a vote of the people. Plus, it would be veto proof.
Michigan voters supported Prop 3 in 2018 by 66.8% amending the constitution to expand voting rights by making it easier to register and vote. The voters made it clear that assuring the right to vote was the tool we need to protect democracy. Since then, bills have been introduced to make election administration and oversight less equitable and to undermine existing laws that maintain election security.
The League of Women Voters wants all citizens to be aware of the misrepresentation of this petition. The Secure MI Vote initiative is meant to discourage voters. It includes restrictions on absentee voting, stricter ID laws, and puts limits on volunteer support of elections. It is designed to bring fewer people to the polls.
Wouldn’t it be great to earmark sufficient funding for elections to recruit, train, and retain workers and add equipment such as secure drop boxes and tabulators? Wouldn’t it be grand to authorize clerks to continue to mail absentee ballot applications to all registered voters in every election cycle? Wouldn’t it be smart to continue statewide risk-limiting audits of election results prior to state certification? (250 audits were conducted in the last election cycle due to the Prop 3 proposal that voters endorsed.)
These are just a few of the things the League of Women Voters would like to see initiated. The best possible outcome could be voter encouragement in a Secure the Right to Vote initiative. That is not what’s being proposed. That is not what we’re being asked to sign.
When the number of signatures reaches 340.047, the Legislature could enact voter suppression measures that we cannot repeal. This number reflects less than 4% of MI voters. Please be informed and don’t be fooled.
Marcia Koppa
Grayling
League of Women Voters
Editor’s note: “If Secure MI Vote” were to gather enough signatures, it would take another formal ballot proposal and amendment to the state constitution, forcing Michigan taxpayers to fund another election.
Prop 3, the constitutional amendment Michigan voters approved in 2018 enshrined the following:
- Provides for the auditing of election results
- Provides for the automatic voter registration of eligible persons when interacting with the state regarding driver’s license or state ID card, unless the person declines
- Provides that military members and overseas voters receive an absentee ballot at least 45 days before the election.
- Provides that eligible persons can register to vote by mail until 15 days before an election
- Provides that eligible persons can register to vote in person at a clerk’s office during the final 14 days before an election and at the polls on election day
- Provides voters with straight-ticket voting option
- Provides that any voter can vote using an absentee ballot (no-excuse absentee voting) during the 40 days before an election
