While the loudest criticism against a GOP effort in Michigan to change the state's election laws has targeted its proposed strict voter ID rules, clerks worry that the Secure MI Vote petition initiative would usher in other far-reaching changes.
The initiative would require clerks to pay churches that serve as polling locations, according to organizers. Estimates indicate places of worship accounted for roughly a fifth of polling locations in 2020. Those leading the petition drive say it would also bar clerks from partnering with nongovernment groups to carry out election-related activities such as registration drives.
Clerks say the initiative also could subject voters to confusing ID rules riddled with contradictory requirements and force election officials to remove online access to absentee ballot applications and turn down help from volunteers who carry out basic tasks such as preparing absentee ballot mailings.
Those concerns are unfounded, said Secure MI Vote spokesperson Jamie Roe. Charlie Spies, a lawyer for Secure MI Vote, said that future guidance would provide clarity, including how to implement the new ID rules, the focus of the initiative, he said. Spies accused "partisan extremists" of "trying to change the subject and create false issues to distract from voter ID."
Secure MI Vote recently began collecting the 340,047 signatures needed to introduce the initiative to state lawmakers. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has already rejected bills mirroring the proposed changes, but the initiative process allows lawmakers to enact the legislation without Whitmer’s signature or the approval of voters.
A poll by the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks found that its members were "overwhelmingly" concerned about the initiative as it’s proposed, according to Harrison Township Clerk Adam Wit, a Republican, who sits on the group's legislative committee.
"I think something like this is best done through the normal legislative process," he said. "Because some of the questions that clerks are raising across the state are things that could be addressed through committees, through taking testimony, hearing from stakeholders."
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Clerks call ID rule confusing
In addition to eliminating the option for those voting in-person to sign an affidavit if they don’t have a photo ID and vote normally, the initiative would create a new ID rule for absentee voters. But clerks worry that conflicting requirements proposed by the initiative would cause confusion.
The initiative states that voters must provide their driver license number, state ID card number or the last four digits of their Social Security number on their absentee ballot application. If they fail to do so, they can "present an original or a copy" of an ID to their "city, township, or county clerk." Roe said it allows voters to mail in a copy of their ID.
But language that would be added to the application takes that option off the table.
The application form would state that voters could only present an ID in-person to their city or township clerk if they don’t list their driver license number, state ID card number or last four digits of their Social Security number. It makes no mention of presenting a copy of an ID or showing one to county clerks.
Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck, a Republican who co-chairs the Michigan Association of County Clerks’ legislative committee, said the language "represents at best a couple of significant typos, but at worst a lack of understanding of the process itself." County clerks do not issue ballots and "allowing a voter to present a copy of their ID to the county clerk would truly not be effective," Roebuck wrote in an email.
Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, a Democrat who also co-chairs the clerks’ association’s legislative committee, wrote in an email that the initiative has "no regard for how the voters could practically and legally carry out this language if it was approved."
Spies said it was a "misdirection to think that anybody is not going to get clear instructions on how to vote." If lawmakers enact the initiative, voters will receive guidance in order to comply with the new rules, he said.
Clerks’ biggest concern is that the new requirement threatens to disenfranchise voters. Those who don't comply with the new rules would receive a provisional ballot that wouldn’t count unless the voter presents an ID in-person at their clerk’s office within six days after an election. Voters without an ID would have to present a copy of their birth certificate or Social Security card and documentation verifying their address.
A ban on donations
Secure MI Vote would bar clerks from accepting donations from individuals or nongovernment entities. Clerks across Michigan received money from the Center for Tech and Civic Life in 2020. The organization was the beneficiary of a $350 million donation from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. Conservatives called the money "Zuck Bucks" and said the funds opened the door to outside influence in the election.
More than 450 Michigan communities received funding from the organization, including Democratic- and Republican-leaning areas, according to a Bridge Michigan analysis.
Delta Township Clerk Mary Clark, a Democrat who serves as president of the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks, used $17,000 from the organization to purchase a ballot box and a camera to monitor it among other equipment.
Wit received nearly $12,000 and used the money to increase pay for some workers and bring in part-time staff to handle a record number of absentee ballots.
"I guess I’m confused," Wit said of the proposed ban on donations. "Usually, people applaud when their local government gets grants to help offset some of the costs."
Elections in Michigan are underfunded and private funds helped clerks fill the gap in 2020, said Chris Thomas, the former director of elections for Michigan. "The fact that jurisdictions, regardless of party, sought those funds… would tell you right away that during the pandemic, the Legislature did not provide additional funding to assist these jurisdictions in a monumental shift to mail voting," he said.
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Churches can't open doors for free
The Secure MI Vote initiative would also bar in-kind contributions.
Roe, the group's spokesperson, said clerks would have to pay churches and places of worship that currently provide access to their space for free to serve as polling locations. "If you’re going to use the church for a polling place, you have to pay that church fair market value for the use of their facility," he said.
The left-leaning advocacy group Progress Michigan found that about 20% of polling locations for the 2020 election were churches or places of worship whose continued use as polling locations could be impacted by the Secure MI Vote initiative.
The overwhelming majority of polling locations in Delta Township are churches that provide free access to their space, Clark said. The additional cost imposed of having to now rent that space is a big question mark, she said.
Places that have provided free access to their space during elections "are just good community partners trying to be civically minded," Wit said. "So that’s really why they’re not looking for financial remuneration for, essentially. what they see as a civic duty."
A ban on volunteers?
Clerks wonder if the ban on in-kind contributions — which applies to any election-related activity — might bar volunteer involvement in elections.
Ann Arbor City Clerk Jacqueline Beaudry, who's appointed, said that organizations on University of Michigan’s campus help register voters and manage lines at satellite clerk’s offices and polling locations. "And so the question is: Are they working for their own organizations or is that considered an in-kind donation to us?" she asked.
And while most election workers throughout the state are paid, some volunteer their time to support clerks with election-related tasks. "I have a volunteer election worker that doesn’t want to be paid, they feel it’s their civic duty," Clark said.
Roe said clerks wouldn’t have to turn away these volunteers while Spies, the lawyer for Secure MI Vote, said there would need to be clarification on which volunteer activities remain permissible. But the two agreed that organizations could continue to conduct election-related activities such as voter registration drives on their own, just not in partnership with clerk’s offices.
Sharon Dolente, a senior adviser with Promote the Vote, which opposes the initiative, is not so sure. The language could arguably be interpreted as a blanket ban. She said. Independently operated voter helplines staffed by volunteers, for instance, might be considered in-kind contributions that help defray the costs of administering elections, she said.
Questions over ballot applications
The initiative would bar the secretary of state, clerks and public employees from "sending or providing access" to absentee ballot applications to voters who don't first request one.
Some election officials worry they might have to remove ballot applications from their websites or stacks of blank applications available in their offices for voters to pick up.
Roe said that the initiative would not prevent clerks from providing applications online. "If you are going to their website, you are soliciting that application," he said. He said the same of voters stopping by their clerk's office to obtain an application.
Spies told the Board of State Canvassers during a Sept. 23 meeting that he wasn’t sure whether the initiative would require the application form to be removed from clerks’ websites. "As with all statutory language and laws, there is some interpretation and that will have to be determined," he said.
He told the Free Press later that tweaks could help clerks comply with the new rules while maintaining online and easy access to applications. For instance, a function could be added online for voters to request an application, he said.
Thomas said it's hard to imagine Secure MI Vote meant to prohibit online access to absentee ballot applications.
"But the drafters don’t really matter once it’s enacted. What they think is irrelevant," he said. "It’s going to be what some judge thinks and what administrators think that it says. And so then it’s just more election litigation, more voter confusion."
Clara Hendrickson fact-checks Michigan issues and politics as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support her work at bit.ly/freepRFA. Contact her at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Secure MI Vote petition impact worries Michigan clerks
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