By Alyssa Burr for the Michigan Independent.
Broadcast version by Chrystal Blair for Michigan News Connection reporting for the Michigan Independent-Public News Service Collaboration
Democrats in the Michigan Legislature recently introduced bills they say are aimed at protecting ballot access as voting rights are weakened at the federal level.
House Bills 5969-5972 and Senate Bills 961-964 were introduced in their respective chambers on May 13. Each set of bills, which lawmakers dubbed the Michigan Voting Rights Act, are intended to accomplish the same thing: codify in state law provisions of the Federal Voting Rights Act, including protections against racial discrimination; create a nonpartisan center for research, training and public information on voting systems and election administration; require local governments to translate election materials into languages other than English; and provide guidelines for election inspectors in assisting people with disabilities with curbside voting.
The bill package, which is a reintroduction of legislation that was introduced in the state Senate last session, comes amid nationwide legal and legislative actions that could make voting more difficult or impossible for some voters in the 2026 midterm elections.
In April, the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled in Louisiana v. Callais that Louisiana’s 2024 congressional map, which created a second majority-Black district after the state’s previous map had been struck down by a federal judge for violating the Voting Rights Act, was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The court’s decision watered down key provisions in Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits racial discrimination in elections and gives minority voters the chance to elect their preferred candidates. Soon after the ruling came down, Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry suspended the state’s U.S. House primary elections in order to make time for the Legislature to redraw the map, and Republicans in Tennessee established a new U.S. House map that erased the state’s only majority-Black district.
More than 20 states, including Michigan, are suing President Donald Trump and members of his administration over Trump’s March 31 executive order that restricts mail-in voting and mandates the creation of a national list of eligible voters.
Mail-in voting has become more widespread in Michigan since voters approved a ballot measure in 2018 that allows all residents to vote by mail for any reason. In the 2024 presidential election, more than 2.2 million Michiganders voted by mail, accounting for roughly 39% of total ballots cast. The state constitution also gives voters the right to join a permanent absentee ballot list, meaning they can sign up to automatically receive a ballot in the mail every election. According to the state, over 1.8 million Michigan voters have signed up for the permanent mail-in ballot list.
Congressional Republicans are considering the SAVE Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections nationwide. The bill is currently stalled in the U.S. Senate. Voting rights activists who have criticized the proposal say it could disenfranchise a large population of voters, including married women and other people who’ve changed their legal name and low-income residents who can’t afford to obtain the documentation required under the bill. Republicans, who currently hold the majority in the Michigan House, passed similar legislation last month.
“As the Trump administration, Congress, and even the U.S. Supreme Court are silencing voters across our nation, we as state lawmakers must work even harder to assure ballot access in Michigan,” Sen. Jeremy Moss, SB 962 sponsor and chair of the Senate Elections Committee, said in a statement.
Michigan House Republicans are unlikely to approve either set of newly introduced legislation. Each set of bills is tie-barred, meaning the respective House or Senate legislation can only pass through the Legislature if they get approved together. The House bills were referred to the chamber’s Government Operations Committee, where bills often go without a hearing. The Senate bills were passed out of the Senate Elections and Ethics Committee and sent to the full Senate floor for a vote on May 20.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and voting rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, the Detroit branch of the NAACP, and Promote the Vote have issued support for the passage of the legislation.
However, during committee testimony on May 20, Chris Swope, the Lansing City Clerk and a representative of the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks, said that even though the organization has worked with lawmakers on previous versions of the bill, concerns about the bill’s language remain. He specifically asked lawmakers to further clarify provisions related to funding for language assistance and requests to view voting equipment.
“As clerks, our whole job is to ensure the voting rights of individuals here in Michigan, so we take this very seriously,” Swope said.
Alyssa Burr wrote this article for the Michigan Independent.
Source: Public News Service
