LANSING, MI – With her fellow Democrats now controlling the legislature, Jocelyn Benson is dreaming bigger.
Michigan’s secretary of state and about 20 Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday laid out their vision for the future of Michigan elections: more funding, protecting poll workers and punishing lies and deceit about the election process that have haunted the state post-2020.
“This is policies that just make our democracy work better,” Benson said, and are necessary for this “critical moment in the history of our democracy.”
Upcoming bills, Senate elections committee chair Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, said, will “build on those successes” of high voter turnout, secure elections and Proposal 2′s expansion of voting rights and access.
Protecting election workers and officials
Election administrators since 2020 have faced “an unprecedented wave” of harassment and threats, Benson said, putting stress on their work and hurting efforts to recruit poll workers.
She blamed those threats on the election denial movement spurred by former President Donald Trump’s false claims about his loss in 2020.
The secretary announced upcoming legislation that “explicitly prohibits and increases the penalties for threatening, harassing or doxing any election official or worker in any way or pressuring them to break the law.”
During a recount in December, for example, some conservative poll challengers reportedly accused election workers of breaking the law and threatened them with prosecution. And some officials, including Benson, have received personal violent threats.
“We recognize the importance of free speech” and communicating with leaders, she said, “but also it does cross the line when it creates a hostile environment.”
Proposal 2′s passage last year prevents “harassing, threatening or intimidating conduct” against voters, but the constitutional amendment does not apply to election workers.
State Rep. Kara Hope, D-Holt, introduced a bill in 2021 to criminalize election worker harassment, but it never got a hearing. She said Tuesday she plans to reintroduce it.
“We owe it to these guardians of democracy,” Hope said, “to ensure that they can do their work free of intimidation, freedom of threats and worse.”
Election officials have also been pressured to break the chain of custody for voting machines.
Livonia’s clerk was unsuccessfully pressured to hand over equipment to election deniers in 2021, The Detroit News reported. And a special prosecutor is considering charging a group of people for allegedly taking ballot tabulators from rural clerks to illegally analyze.
“I think it should be criminalized for anyone to pressure an election official to break the law,” Benson said, “which would include turning over access to election materials that third parties are not allowed under the law to access.”
Curbing petition deceit and FOIA abuse
Benson also announced upcoming legislation to “hold accountable those who intentionally mislead voters about their rights, the petitions they may be signing and the security of their vote.”
It is legal in Michigan for petition circulators, often encountered in public spaces, to misrepresent or lie about what people are signing. Moss in the past has introduced bills on this, and he said Tuesday it’s back on the table with influences from other states.
“Oregon has a series of bills implemented into law that governs over the petition process,” Moss said. “We’re behind on that in Michigan, and then that creates that gap where bad actors can enter into.”
On whether misleading voters applies to people spreading false claims about elections, Benson said “we can take some of the same jurisprudence around false advertising and apply it” to deceiving voters.
“The issue is intentionality, knowingly,” she said. “And also, we’re not talking about candidates lying about their biographies. We’re talking about candidates or others lying about how someone can get a ballot, turn it in and make sure their voice is heard.”
Along with harassment of election officials, Benson teased legislation to crack down on “duplicative or repetitive or unnecessary” Freedom of Information Act requests that have “become a form of harassment.”
She said clerks need protection from “nationally coordinated requests” that often “perpetuate misinformation” and take clerks away from election preparation.
The Michigan Bureau of Elections last year spent triple the time it has in the past on processing records requests, The Washington Post reported last fall. Local clerks have also seen mounds of FOIA requests from people – often misguidedly – trying to uncover wrongdoing.
More money for elections
Democrats said they’ll give more funds to election administration, long an ask from clerks, especially as costs rise with allowances like absentee voting and soon early in-person voting.
Benson said her office wants $100 million total to fund the Bureau of Elections and support local officials. The bureau, she added, has some employees “doing two, three jobs at a time.”
“We will seek funds to provide the township, city and county election clerks across our state with sufficient resources,” Benson said, “to ensure the security of every election and the security of every person who participates in it.”
The secretary will also work with lawmakers to implement ballot proposals passed last year. Proposal 1 requires a financial disclosure law for elected leaders by 2024 and Proposal 3 put reproductive rights in the constitution.
But Proposal 2 will require the most legislation. It expands voting rights and access with nine main points, including nine days of early in-person voting. Benson said that will require funding so local governments can hire more staff.
Related: Props 1, 2 and 3 are in Michigan’s constitution. What happens now?
For proposal implementation, Benson’s office formed an election policy advisory taskforce of bipartisan lawmakers, nonpartisan organizations, the chairs of the House and Senate elections committees and representatives from the governor’s office.
“This taskforce will ensure we are working together and allowing data, best practices and the input of critical stakeholders throughout our state to guide the implementation of these important amendments,” Benson said.
The taskforce, she added, will also weigh in on other election-related legislation.
Moss said he welcomes Republicans to the discussion table, an invitation taken Tuesday by last year’s House elections committee chair, state Rep. Ann Bollin, R-Brighton Township.
“I’m willing to work across the aisle on legislation to implement election security measures, protect clerks and fund our elections,” she said in a statement.
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