Whitmer Vetoes GOP Election Integrity Bills
Republicans protest: ‘Proving who you are before you vote is a very basic concept that the vast majority of Michigan voters support.’
Surprising no one, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed several GOP election reform bills on Friday.
“Access to the ballot box is a right, and I will continue to fight any attempt to limit the right to vote,” Whitmer tweeted.
She vetoed Senate Bill (SB) 303, 304, and House Bill 5007.
The first bill sought to require stricter voter ID measures. Voters seeking an absentee ballot would have to submit a copy of their driver’s license or state ID, provide the last four digits of their Social Security number, or present ID to the city clerk in which the voter is registered. If the applicant could not provide the above information, the clerk would have been required to issue a provisional absentee voter ballot that wouldn’t count unless the applicant verified their identity to the clerk before 5 p.m. on the sixth day after election day.
The bill aimed to prohibit election officials from sending out absentee ballot applications unless they are specifically requested. Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson sent out absentee ballot applications before the 2020 presidential election, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason to make socially distanced voting easier.
