State Rep. Luke Meerman has voted against Democrat legislation that would strip away verification and validity measures that were specifically enacted to prevent fraud.

Senate Bills 603-04 amend Michigan Election Law by making several misguided changes to the state’s recount process. Under current law, vote recounts may be done based on allegations of fraud or mistake, but the legislation voted on today not only removes fraud as a reason for a recount, but also states that recount petitions may only allege an error and requires petitions to be based on the notion that the election results would have been different without that error.

Meerman said it’s a mistake to tamper with current laws that establish clear checks and balances that give the people of Michigan faith in the trustworthiness of poll workers, clerks and election results.

Meerman also said watering down protections is counterproductive when several clear inadequacies have existed within the state’s elections process that could pave the way for fraud. This includes having no system to tell if someone votes in multiple states, with the Secretary of State failing to remove 170,000 names of people who no longer lived in the state from the voter rolls, and finally doing so only after she was sued.

“Free and fair elections are the foundation of our democracy, and investigating fraud, wrongdoing, or violations of our laws is essential to ensuring their accuracy and validity,” Meerman said. “These bills create narrow conditions for an election recount. Our citizens already have so little trust left in our elections. This plan will only exacerbate that skepticism.”

Despite Meerman and other Republicans’ objections, the bills were approved.