Stricter Michigan Voter ID Proposals Address Non-Existent Problems: NAACP

DETROIT, MI — The Detroit Branch NAACP is pushing back against strict new voter identification legislation approved this week in a lame-duck session of the Michigan Legislature. Voters who show up at polls without a photo ID can still cast provisional ballots on Election Day, but must bring an ID to their local election office within 10 days for their votes to be counted.

Michigan law already requires a photo ID, but under current law, they can cast ballots without it if they sign an affidavit affirming their identity under threat of perjury. The proposal, which passed on mostly party votes of 57-50. However, five Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the proposal.

The GOP-backed legislation now heads to the Senate, where Republicans have a supermajority.
Advocates of stricter voter ID laws say they will curb fraud.

“This protects the integrity of every legal citizens’ right to vote and to make sure the fraudulent votes aren’t cast,” state Rep. Gary Glenn, R-Midland, told the Detroit Free Press. “It seems to be a commonsense requirement.”

Rep. Lisa Lyons, R-Alto, the sponsor of the sponsor of House Bills 6066, 6067 and 6068, said care was taken not to disenfranchise voters. “I want to make sure that we are setting policy that protects the integrity of our elections but we are also not setting up barriers,” Lyons told MLive.com.

However, the Detroit NAACP and other critics of the proposed legislation who worry it will further disenfranchise minority low-income and minority voters are urging Gov. Rick Snyder to veto it if it reaches his desk. In 2012, Snyder vetoed legislation that would have required voters to show a photo ID to receive an absentee ballot,

The Detroit NAACP called the legislation approved this week a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

“The constant move to create an issue of voter fraud where none exists eliminates the right to vote when our constitution insists that every individual is entitled to exercise his or her franchise,” the group said in a statement. “According to the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the right to vote is not to be ‘denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.’ Why then are legislators seeking to abridge, as well as to make subservient, certain citizens within our nation?”

A spokesperson for Secretary of State Ruth Johnson told The Detroit News that state election officials are “not aware of fraud related to the affidavit” that is required when voters don’t have a photo ID.

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Under the proposed legislation, $8 million would be appropriated for “election modernization, voter education and implementation” of the new provisions, as well as $2 million for free birth certificates and $1 million for a free ID program.

“If the state has $10 million to improve the process for voting, then let us take these dollars to spend in Detroit and other places for new voting machines, training, poll workers and optical scanners, which can reduce voting time, increase voter efficiency and increase accountability,” the NAACP said.

During the recently ended recount of Michigan votes, multiple problems with optical scanners used to count ballots were revealed. In the Wayne County seat of Detroit, about half of the ballots weren’t eligible for the recount. In Detroit Precinct 152, the poll book listed more than 300 voters, but only 50 ballots were found in the properly sealed box. Across the city, 87 optical scanners malfunctioned. According to election officials, many of the scanners jammed when voters tried to feed their ballots into them, which could have skewed vote counts if the frustrated voter tried to push in the ballot too many times.

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