MI Right to Vote and Promote the Vote proposals comparison

A comparison between The MI Right to Vote (MI RTV) and The Promote the Vote (PTV) right to vote proposals

While there are many areas where the proposed constitutional amendments of MI Right To Vote and Promote the Vote are in agreement, we have been asked by many people to include what we have determined are some of the significant differences between the PTV and MI RTV proposed amendments. 

We reserve the right to update the list.  Further,  the responses set forth our beliefs based on our collective and extensive experience with election administration and in satisfying the best interest of voters.

In addition, we also have a separate end-the-dirty-tricks proposal requiring all ballot proposals to go to a vote of the people which no other group has and which is critically important to protecting the right to vote. 

 

MI Right to Vote:

Comparing the MI Right to Vote and the Promote the Vote proposals

Our proposal strengthens democracy by making the right to vote a fundamental enumerated right by putting it in Article I of the Michigan constitution. And, in general, ours provides stronger protections and tools for making it easier to vote. Theirs offers weaker protections, creates extra undue burdens on our system of elections, and in some cases, makes our elections dangerously less secure and vulnerable to allegations of fraud.

MI Right to Vote

1. Makes the right to vote a fundamental enumerated right by putting it in Article I of the Michigan constitution where all of the fundamental rights of Michiganders are listed.

Promote the Vote

attempts to make voting a fundamental right, but puts it under Article II of the Michigan constitution (dealing with
administration of elections). How can it truly be a fundamental right if it’s not included with the enumerated list of all of the other rights guaranteed to Michiganders?

 

MI Right to Vote

2. Requires that any proposed law limiting the right to vote shall require the strictest judicial scrutiny by requiring that such law be necessary and narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling state interest.

Promote the Vote

does not include a strict scrutiny standard, which is the highest level of judicial scrutiny of restrictions on voting rights. PTV offers weaker protections

 

MI Right to Vote

3. Requires that any proposed law restricting voting based on fraud must be based on clear evidence of fraud, not on the mere assertion of possible fraud. 

 

 

A 2007 Michigan Supreme Court case allows the legislature, in the interests of protecting the purity of an election, to enact a law based on the mere possibility of fraud. 

Promote the Vote

does not require clear evidence of fraud and opens the door to the mere assertion of fraud, which has been used as a strategy to take away the vote of the people.

does nothing to stop restrictive voting laws based on the mere possibility of fraud. The legislature would be able to continue to restrict voting rights on the mere hypothetical claim of fraud.

 

MI Right to Vote

4. Continues the right of voters to receive applications for absentee ballots from the Secretary of State and local election administrators on an unsolicited basis.

 

If both MI RTV and SECURE MI VOTE proposals pass, the Secretary of State and local election administrator would be able to continue to send voters applications to request absentee ballots on an unsolicited basis like was done in 2020. 

Promote the Vote

does not include a provision permitting the Secretary of State and local election administrators to send voters applications to request absentee ballots on an unsolicited basis even though there is currently an initiative by Secure MI Vote seeking to prohibit such unsolicited mailings.

 

 

 

If both PTV and Secure MI Vote proposals pass, the Secretary of State and local election administrators would NO LONGER be able to send voters applications to request absentee ballots on an unsolicited basis.

 

The Promote the Vote proposal has additional provisions that we do not include in our proposal. We deem some of these unnecessary. They create an undue burden on our election system. And some we see as potentially damaging. 

Here are Promote The Vote Additions

Promote the Vote

1. PTV permits absentee ballots of the military and voters living overseas to count as long as they are postmarked on or before election day and received by the appropriate clerk within six days after an election.

 

 

MI Right to Vote

Asserts that this will increase cries of election fraud. Jurisdictions in the state will have to wait six days to receive late ballots from overseas and military voters. This is not just the known ballots that were sent out to the voters, but also the ballots from such voters who registered late using the Federal Postcard Application mandated by the federal government. Since no jurisdiction knows who these people are, the whole state will be stuck waiting for six days. City and township clerks will have to wait for six extra days to tabulate and report their results to their county clerks.

 

In 2020, the primary assertion of election fraud was that the absentee ballots weren’t able to be counted until the day after election day and changed the results reported solely on in-person voting. An additional six day period to finish counting would only exacerbate claims of fraud.  

 

Why provide ammunition to those claiming fraud? Further, PTV’s provision could create chaos and uncertainty.  Not every letter may have a legible postmark, bar code or tracking mark. 

 

Litigation could stall election results.

Promote the Vote

2. PTV permits the right to cast a ballot at any early voting site which may serve voters from more than six precincts and may serve voters from more than one municipality within a county.  Early voting sites shall be open at least nine consecutive days before the Monday prior to an election for at least eight hours each day.  

 

MI Right to Vote

MI RTV asserts that early voting is totally unnecessary as voters can vote early by absentee voting, including going to their clerk’s office to complete an application for an absentee ballot and receive an absentee ballot that same day. The constitution already provides that absentee ballots can be voted by every voter without having to give a reason. 


Early voting in person, moreover, requires live tabulation of votes which complicates their administration. And combining more than six precincts and more than one municipality in a county will create confusion among hundreds of ballot styles and invite computer malfunction. 

Early voting, therefore, provides little value and unnecessarily burdens the clerks’ administration of elections with additional staffing, time and expenses. Further, such early election sites will become populated with election challengers, observers and inspectors of election; none of whom are required for simple absentee balloting. There is no apparent benefit to having early live voting sites. 

Promote the Vote

  1. PTV provides that voters can choose to be put on a list so that they only have to apply for an absentee ballot once. This means that absentee ballots will always be mailed to the voter’s address for every election.

MI Right to Vote

Believes that it is much safer and secure to have an application for an absentee ballot sent to a voter’s address for every election cycle.

Registered voters can now apply online to receive an absentee ballot for the next election. 
 
If the voter no longer resides at that address, the misdelivered application won’t cause any harm. It is just an application.

But having a blank absentee ballot sent to a place where someone new resides creates an opportunity to commit voter fraud and provides ammunition to those looking to perpetuate claims of voter fraud.  A significant number of absentee ballots would be sent to voters who have moved or died.

The average number of Michigan residents who move every year is approximately 1,380,000, or 13.8%. While some voters might take advantage of updating their address in the registration records by going online to the Secretary of State’s website or to the office of their local Clerk, many more will not.


Renters and low income voters move more often.  Approximately, 54% of Detroit’s residents are renters, making them more likely to move and miss that blank ballot sent to their previous address.

MI Right to Vote and Promote the Vote Similarities

1. Provides voters with the right to at least one drop box to deposit their absentee ballots, and a minimum of one drop box for every 15,000 registered voters, in each jurisdiction administering an election.

 

2. Provides voters with the right to pre-paid postage from the jurisdictions administering an election for the return of applications for absentee ballots and the return of absentee ballots sent to voters from such jurisdictions.

 

3.  Reaffirms the right to use a photo ID, a sworn affidavit or a matched signature to verify identity to vote.

 

4.  Continues the right of a voter to submit an absentee voter application without having to provide all or part of the voter’s social security number or driver’s license number or a copy of the voter’s photo ID. 

 

5.  Permits jurisdictions administering elections to continue to accept grants and donations for election administration and equipment, including permitting churches to donate their spaces as precincts, so long as the grant or donation is subject to the sole condition that it be used only for such purposes.