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The claim: A Republican bill in Michigan “would make it a crime for election officials … to share information about how to vote by mail and where to find a ballot drop box.”
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the state’s top election official, says a Republican-backed bill would prevent election officials like her from doing an important part of their job: sharing information with voters about how to exercise their right to vote.
Benson, who is running for reelection next year, has repeatedlyclashed with GOP lawmakers over a package of bills that seeks to revamp the way elections are conducted in the state and curtail her office’s powers. She has objected in particular to GOP bills that would restrict access to absentee voting; in 2018, Michigan voters overwhelmingly supported an initiative that enshrined expanded access to mail ballots in the state’s constitution.
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A Michigan Republican lawmaker who has helped lead the effort to advance a sweeping set of GOP-sponsored election bills ended a committee meeting Wednesday fuming about how the state s chief election officer has characterized the proposals.
Before adjourning the Senate Elections Committee, Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, blasted a statement issued by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson that he said misstated the intention of one of the bills that was considered by the committee. McBroom had clarified the aim of the legislation before Benson released her statement. She needs to stop with these political hit pieces that are obviously written hours before we even have committee, McBroom said.
GOP bills propose new rights for poll watchers, election challengers freep.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from freep.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) - Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson submitted testimony to the state Senate Elections Committee today, denouncing legislation.
Election clerks support the concept of early in-person voting, but “one day is just not sufficient,” Farmington Hills Clerk Pam Smith told lawmakers on the Senate Elections Committee, where she testified on behalf of the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks.
Allowing just one weekend day, with hours different than those on the traditional Election Day, “could cause voter confusion,” and it would create new costs for local communities without any new funding, Smith said.
Seeking to curb long lines on Election Day and provide voters with additional options to cast ballots, 24 states now offer some form of early and in-person voting and allow an average of 19 days, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.