Legislator working to address proposed Bureau of Elections rules

State Rep. Matt Hall today led another step in strengthening how Michigan conducts and oversees elections – fighting for common-sense solutions that work toward consistency and restoring confidence among people with concerns.

Hall and other members of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules approved a resolution paving the way for legislation addressing lax signature validation and other proposed rules from the Michigan Bureau of Elections that could open up the state’s elections process to fraud.

“I have heard from many people who see hastily created rules that don’t properly vet signatures on ballots or let people go online and request ballots without having to sign anything to prove that it’s them, and that causes them to lose faith in how Michigan conducts elections,” said Hall. “I am working to restore that confidence. People will have more faith in the system if these protections are put into law and this is the pathway to doing that.”

Hall also noted that recent voter-approved initiatives which allowed for more ways to vote require additional work to ensure that election integrity is maintained.

“We can’t put the idea of safe and secure elections on the back burner while greater access is on the front burner. Both are vitally important components in this equation and that is what we are addressing,” Hall said.

Michigan law requires absentee voters to complete and sign an application in order to receive a ballot, and the signed form is to be compared to the signature in the voter’s file. Last year, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson proposed administrative rules to require local election officials to review signatures on absentee applications and ballots with the presumption that a signature is valid. She also proposed a rule to maintain the online absentee application she launched in June 2020, which allows any voter to request a ballot without physically signing the application.

The Secretary of State has indicated an openness to the joint committee’s previous proposed change of removing specific language about presumption of validity for a signature, and new rules that were sent to the committee did not include the language. Hall said codifying these changes will provide clarity to people going forward.

The resolution also seeks to enhance required information from candidates running for office, which will increase transparency.

Bills on the proposed rule changes are expected to be formally introduced in the coming days.