Michigan Republicans this week proposed changes to state electoral laws and created a veto-proof way to bypass Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer, according to reports.
The 39 bills proposed in the Republican-led Legislative would require the identification of new voters, prohibit prepaid envelopes for absentees, limit the number of absentee ballots, and prevent the Secretary of State from sending absentee ballots, unless requested, from according to Bridge Michigan.
“If this legislation is not passed by our legislature, which I am sure it will be, but if it is not signed by the governor, then we have other plans to ensure that it becomes law before 2022,” said Ron Weiser, Michigan council chairman. GOP said in a video on social media, according to The Detroit News.
“If this legislation is not … signed by the governor, we have other plans to ensure that it becomes law before 2022.”
Michigan Republican Party President Ron Weiser in Lansing, Michigan, August 18, 2020. (Associated Press).
Weiser told the North Oakland Republican Club on Thursday that Republicans plan to bring together various parts of their voting bills into a petition initiative that the legislature could enact in law without Whitmer’s signature if it obtains the 340,000 signatures needed to get there. to the ballots.
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The move would not allow the Republican Party to unilaterally change the state’s constitution, according to The News.
Republican state senator Ruth Johnson called the proposals “measures of common sense that will protect the integrity of our elections, safeguarding people’s right to vote and ensuring that our elections are safe and secure,” according to Bridge Michigan.
Whitmer has already made it clear where she is in the accounts.
“I have a veto pen and I am ready to use it in any bill that makes it more difficult for people in our state to vote,” she said, according to The News.
“I have a veto pen and I am ready to use it in any bill that makes it more difficult for people in our state to vote.”
Governor Gretchen Whitmer speaks in Lansing, Michigan, on February 24, 2021. (Associated Press)
Weiser said the new measures would give the state a chance for a “fair election in 2022”.
The proposed changes come after the defeat of then President Trump to then-candidate Joe Biden in the state. Trump contested the results in Michigan and several other states, claiming electoral fraud had occurred. But the arguments of Trump and his allies have failed to gain traction in the courts.
Michigan’s effort also comes at a time when Georgia enacts changes to the law that make it difficult to vote absentees and Democrats in Congress are working on a bill that would expand voting rights by setting national standards.
Michigan Democrats argue that Republican efforts to secure elections are in fact electoral suppression in disguise. Republicans say they are trying to prevent Democrats from centralizing elections, thereby taking control of local communities.
“The fact that Republicans did not win as many disputes as they wanted does not justify their attempt to silence voters,” said Democrat Jim Ananich, a minority leader in the Michigan Senate, saying the state’s elections were always honest. “That’s how Michigan Republicans do business. First, they lose. Then they lie. And then they find ways to suppress the vote, because even they know that when people vote, Democrats win.”
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Michigan Democratic Party President Lavora Barnes noted that 67% of Michigan voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2018 that, among other changes, allowed absentee voting without excuse.
Weiser also rejected calls for him to resign, which started on Friday after the appearance, he called Whitmer and the secretary of state and attorney general “three witches” and added that Republicans need to be ready to “burn at the stake “while they are at the North Oakland Republic Club, according to Michigan Live. He also referred to “murder” when talking about two state Democratic deputies.
Weiser said he should have chosen his words more “wisely”, but said he had no plans to resign.