LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed a package of bills into law that she says “ensure every vote in Michigan can be cast and counted, no matter who you are or where you live.”

In fact, she and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson repeatedly mentioned how the new laws “strengthen and protect democracy.”

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However, the signing and these statements beg two questions: 1) When in recent years has every vote in Michigan not been cast or counted? 2) What’s in the fine print when it comes to these news laws?

The new laws stem from the November 2022 passage of Proposal 2. Most Michiganders understood it as a “voter rights” initiative but as with most proposals, that phrasing served as a trojan horse to squeeze in much more once Lansing’s Democrat-run Legislature got its hands on it.

The new laws will:

  • Guarantee protection for election officials who are intimidated along with guaranteed protection for election officials that are prevented from performing official duties during an election.
  • Enforce a maximum felony penalty of five years for people who prevent or prohibit election workers from doing their jobs.
  • Allow Michiganders to serve as an election inspector by allowing them to file an application online.
  • Preregister Michigan residents between the ages of 16 and 17-and-a-half-years-old so that the Secretary of State can process their voter registration in that eligible election year.
  • Expand voter registration options and allow Michiganders to register to vote using the last four digits of their social security number.
  • Expand Michigan’s automatic voter registration process, including requiring the Secretary of State to register any person who applies for a license or ID card who is eligible to register to vote and to send that applicant a notice of registration with an instruction on how to decline that registration.
  • Give the Secretary of State the power to designate a state agency as an automatic voter registration agency if that agency routinely collects information from individuals that would confirm their eligibility to register to vote.
  • Require the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to transmit voter-eligibility information received from Medicaid applicants for purposes of registration.
  • Allow Indian nations and tribes to request approval to submit voter-eligibility information to the Secretary for purposes of registration.
  • Require the Secretary of State and Michigan Department of Corrections to coordinate to ensure eligible individuals are registered to vote when released from incarceration. This takes effect June 30, 2025.
  • Bring Michigan into compliance with the federal Electoral Count Reform Act by updating the election canvassing and certification process.
  • Provide clear guidance on how and when the governor must issue a certificate of ascertainment containing the results of a presidential election, and it also protects eligible voters from having their ballots rejected because of mistakes made by election officials.
  • Clarify the process and grounds by which judicial relief may be sought from the board of state canvassers’ certification of a presidential election.
  • Prohibit a county clerk from conducting an election audit if the clerk is serving as an officer, member, or precinct delegate of a political party. Instead, the clerk would have to appoint a designee who is not similarly disqualified.
  • Require political advertisements generated in whole or substantially with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to include a statement that the advertisement was generated by artificial intelligence.
  • Make it a crime for a person to knowingly distribute materially deceptive media generated by AI if they do so with the intent of harming the reputation or electoral prospects of a candidate in an election.

Earlier this month, Whitmer signed legislation to no longer make it a misdemeanor for people to pay for rides to polling locations through apps such as Uber and Lyft.

The timing of the new laws is not lost on political insiders. Michigan is expected to play a key role in the 2024 presidential election. In addition, Michigan voters can cast their ballot up to 9 days in advance of Election Day during the 2023 Primary.