SOS candidate Benson reiterates her support for early voting in Michigan

The Democratic candidate for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced today her intentions to take an “Oath of Nonpartisanship” win she is elected as the next Secretary of State and takes office in January 2011.

“I firmly believe that our Secretary of State must operate the office in a nonpartisan manner,” Benson said at the annual meeting of the Oakland County Women Officials’ Network on Friday. “That's why upon taking office I will take an Oath of Nonpartisanship, pledging to the citizens of Michigan that I will operate the office in a neutral and nonpartisan fashion.

“To Michigan voters that means you won't find me co-chairing any campaigns or endorsing any candidates in elections over which I will serve as the final certifier of election results,” Benson said. “Michigan citizens deserve to have full confidence that their elections are clean, honest and fair.”

Benson also took the opportunity on Friday morning to reiterate her support for Early Voting in Michigan.

“A citizen casting a vote is the lifeblood of our democracy,” she said. “In these tough economic times, when some families are having to work more than one job to make ends meet, early voting options help them to still be able to vote and be heard.”

Citing a recent Michigan League of Women Voters poll that showed 70 percent of Michigan voters support efforts to make voting more convenient, supporting early voting and no reason absentee voting. Benson said she wanted to make sure that Michigan citizens enjoy the same types of access to voting that citizens enjoy neighboring states.

That’s in sharp contrast to the Republican SOS candidates. Cameron Brown and Michele McManus voted against an amendment on no reason absentee voting after Senate Democrats forced a vote in March. GOP Secretary of State candidate Ruth Johnson wants to make it more difficult for voters to cast their ballots, and she is calling on county clerks and state leaders to withdraw an early voting proposal.

As one of Michigan’s leading election law experts, Benson has worked to eliminate barriers to voting and preserve the integrity of our elections throughout the state. In 2007 she successfully led an effort to block the closing of a Secretary of State branch office in Buena Vista Township, convincing the United State Justice Department that the closure violated the Voting Rights Act. During the 2008 election, she was called to testify before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, where she called on Michigan Secretary of Secretary Terri Land to ban the use of foreclosure lists to challenge voters’ eligibility on Election Day.

After earning her B.A. at Wellesley College, she began her career at the Southern Poverty Law Center, investigating hate groups and hate crimes throughout the country. She earned an M.Phil as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and subsequently earned her law degree from Harvard Law School.

Benson is currently a law professor at Wayne State University Law School, she not only teaches Election law, she has also published the first major book on the role of the Secretary of State in enforcing election and campaign finance laws. Benson's book, "State Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process," highlights best practices of Secretaries from throughout the country and seeks to inform voters about how Secretaries of State from either side of the political spectrum can work to advance democracy and election reform.

Despite widespread voter support, Senate Republicans continue to block voting reform

A statewide poll sponsored by the non-partisan League of Women Voters and the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks found a whopping 70 percent of Michigan voters believe the Legislature should pass bills to make it easier for them to cast ballots,but the bottleneck, as usual, continues to be Senate Republicans.

No reason absentee voting and early voting have widespread and bipartisan support, including Republican Secretary of State Terri Land. The telephone survey of 600 representative people found support for both reforms did not drop below 55 percent in any of the poll’s 29 demographic segments — whether it be gender, partisan affiliation,age, geography, ethnicity, frequency of absentee voting, occupation or the presence of children in the household, according to a story in the Downriver News Herald.

Still, Senate Republicans continue to block any type of voter reform that will increase voter turnout and make it easier to vote.

The Democratically-controlled House passed no reason absentee voting with bipartisan support in April of last year, but the Senate has refused to take up the bill the last two sessions. In fact, they have not even held a single committee hearing on any voting reform measure.

The House approved early voting in December of 2008 that would allow the polls to be open on Friday, Saturday and Monday before each election. Guess where that bill died?

The House also approved House Bill 4261 in May 2009 with a bipartisan vote of 92-19 that would allow 16-year-olds to pre-register to vote when they get their first driver’s license, but it has sat in the Senate without a hearing for more than a year.

Enough is enough. Call or email your state Senator, and tell them to support the will of the people and move these common sense reforms.

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization with more than 150,000 members and supporters nationwide that has fought since 1920 to improve our systems of government and impact public policies through citizen education and advocacy. Its simple mission is to encourage informed and active participation in government, work to increase understanding of major public policy issues and influences public policy through education and advocacy.

The purpose of the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks is to promote, enhance and encourage the professional development and standing of municipal clerks; encourage improvement of methods and procedures of duties performed by clerks; and to address legislative matters relating to their responsibilities.

SOS directs her criticism for blocking voting measures to the wrong side of the Capitol

Republican Secretary of State Terri Land, according to subscription only Gongwer, “blasted the Legislature on Wednesday for focusing almost exclusively on budget issues and not acting on other pressing issues.”

"My frustration is the same as every other organizations; the unions and everyone else,” she told Gongwer. “Nobody is getting any legislation passed. It's very frustrating.”

She said she would like to see action on proposals she has made for real-time campaign finance reporting, but there is no legislation pending. She told the other subscription service covering Lansing, MIRS, that before she leaves office at the end of the year, she would like to see legislation creating a two-week early voting window and no-reason absentee voting and a bill creating electronic vehicle tabs passed.

The fact is the Democratically-controlled House has approved early voting and no reason absentee voting, but the Republican-controlled Senate refuses to act on them. The House also approved bills allowing 16-year-olds to pre-register to vote, but the Senate also refuses to move on it, too.

It seems Ms. Land’s needs to address her criticism to her side of the aisle and to the Senate side of the Capitol. Republicans have blocked every single attempt to make it easier and more convenient to vote and increase voter turnout.

In fact, two of the three Republican candidates for Secretary of State are members of that obstructionist Senate, and are against every attempt to make voting convenient.

Online voter registration clears the House

LANSING – The House approved a pair of bills on Thursday that will allow residents to register to vote online.

The House approved House bills 4539 and 4540 mostly along party liens with a vote of at 68-36 apiece. House Democrats continue to eliminate barriers to voting and make it easier for residents to both register and to vote and discharge their duty as U.S. citizen, but those bills continue to be stalled it the Republican-controlled Senate. Bills passed in the House and stalled in the Senate so far to make it easier to vote include no reason absentee voting, early voting and allowing 16-year-olds to pre-register to vote.

Rep. Kim Meltzer, R-Clinton Township, has been the point person in the House fighting any attempt to increase voter turnout and make it easier to register and to vote, and she trotted out her standard GOP boogieman: ACORN. She told subscription only Gongeer, “groups like ACORN could submit fraudulent voter registrations.”

Macomb County Clerk and former Democratic Secretary of State Candidate Carmella Sabaugh and Rep. Lesia Liss, D-Warren, launched a website to show how the process would work if the bills are approved.

The site asks for citizenship status, whether the applicant will be 18 at the election and an email address. It also provides an explanation of the rules for registering online. A succeeding page asks for the personal information needed to complete the registration. To alleviate Meltzer’s baseless fears, you must vote in person in the first election after you register with, of course, a photo ID card.

Land contradicts GOP Senate and supports voting measures

LANSING – Apparently, Secretary of State Terri Land is at odds with Senate Majority Mike Bishop and the Senate GOP caucus on election issues.

Land testified before the House Committee on Ethics and Elections on Wednesday and she supports measures the House Democrats have passed, but the Senate refuses to move.

The House approving no reason absentee voting with bipartisan support last month, but the Senate has refused to take up the bill the last two sessions. Committee member Kim Meltzer, R-Clinton Township, has been the leading GOP mouthpiece for opposing the common sense measure that will increase voter turnout, and she tried to get Land to buy into the GOP’s flimsily excuse that it increases voter fraud. Land refuse to bite, and she said there has been no prosecution of voter fraud during her almost eight year tenure. She also said reforms she supports, like an electronic poll book, will make voter verification easier.

Land referred to Chris Thomas, the Director of Elections for many years, who said there has been no cases of voter fraud in regard to A/B that he is aware of.

“Where we generally see fraud is when people get their ballots, and campaigners show up their porch, and voters feel they are being strong-armed,” he said.

Land said, in contrast to her GOP colleagues, she supports early voting and allowing 16-year-olds to pre-register to vote; something Meltzer objected to. Land said it’s much better than registering them to vote when age 18 by outside groups. Land said it would not be an issue with local clerks, and they would not see them on their voter file until age 18.

“I think it’s the best way to do it,” Land said. “They are already there with their birth certificate when they get their driver’s license.”

Committee Chair Rep. Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee, asked Land for her help in getting some movement on the bills she supports.

“We are having a terrible time moving these items with your colleagues in the Senate,” she said. “Would you be wiling to help in the Senate?”

Land said she would.

“It took 20 years to get election consolidation,” she said. “I sure hope it does not take another 20 years.”

House passes early voting bill that will not get by Senate Republicans

The Michigan House continued its quest to improve voter turnout and make it easier for people to exercise their Constitutional right to vote. This time, the House approved a bill that will allow early voting in Michigan.

On Thursday, the House approved House Bill 4090 by a vote of 58-50 that will allow Michigan the same convenience we saw voters in other states enjoy. The common sense measure gives local clerk's plenty of leeway in how to do it.

The polls will be open on Friday, Saturday and Monday before each election. The clerk's office is already required to be open on the last Saturday before the election to collect absentee ballots, so it's just an extra two days. The clerk only has to open one polling place, instead of all the precincts, which could just be the local township, village or city hall where the clerk is already. It also only requires the polling place to be open for eight hours a day, and the clerk can pick the hours.

This will increase voter turnout by being open for working people on the weekend. The problem is this bill is tie-barred to HB 4048, a bill to allow people to vote with an absentee ballot for no reason. But the Republican-controlled Senate has jumped through hoops to disentrance voters, and it refuses to allow a vote on HB 4048, that was just approved by the House in September, as well refusing to act on the Senate version.

The Senate has been the biggest obstacle to getting anything passed, and it took one more step in that direction this week.

Thursday was the last scheduled session day during the Lame Duck session, and all bills not passed by the end of the month are dead. There are three tentative session days scheduled for next week, and three the week of Dec. 16. But when the Senate adjoined on Thursday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, surprised the entire Senate when he said the Senate will not come back until Wednesday instead of Tuesday, meaning there is now only a maximum of five days left to accomplish some major legislation.

The House was in session from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in an attempt to address this major legislation, but Bishop's ego is again holding the state hostage.

According to subscription only MIRS and Gongwer, Bishop said the Senate will not address any legislation until Gov. Jennifer Granholm issues her budget-cutting Executive Order. But the Governor has said all along she wants to wait on cuts in light of plans for a federal stimulus package, as well as talks on cuts with legislative leaders. Why not have an agreement or a consonance in place on cuts before an EO with cuts is issued.

You will have to ask Bishop's ego.