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Be sure your voter registration is not cancelled!January 22, 2009. Tens of thousands of Michigan voters may
be at risk of being
removed from the voter rolls over the next few weeks because they were placed on a
“cancellation countdown” list two years ago. In August 2006, Secretary of State
Terri Lynn Land’s Bureau of Elections put the registered voters’ names on the
list based upon the return of nonforwardable mail marked as undeliverable by
the post office. Voter protection groups are encouraging Michigan voters —
particularly those individuals who did not vote in the recent presidential
election or in the preceding federal primary election—to check their voting
status immediately.
To ensure Michigan voters can participate in upcoming elections, Advancement Project and the Michigan Election Reform Alliance (MERA) have developed an online database* that includes names of the approximately 165,000 individuals who were added to the cancellation countdown list in August 2006. Voters can easily check whether they are targeted for cancellation by entering their names on Advancement Project’s web site, www.advancementproject.org/michiganvoters. Additionally, Advancement Project and MERA have provided a toll-free phone number for voters who may not have Internet access. Michigan voters may call 877-547-6260 to check to see if their names have been targeted for cancellation. “We and our community partners at MERA have already done the hard work in advance, by insisting that the Michigan Bureau of Elections disclose these names, as required by federal law, and not continue to hide them from the public.,” said Bradley Heard, senior attorney, Advancement Project. “Now it is imperative that Michigan voters take action right away to make sure they are not purged from the rolls.” STEPS MICHIGAN VOTERS CAN TAKE TO VERIFY THEIR VOTING STATUSMichigan voters who may be at risk of being purged from the rolls should take the following steps immediately:
The Bureau of Election’s 2006 purge effort has remained largely under a cloak of secrecy, and officials have refused to respond to several of the voter protection groups’ concerns regarding the manner in which the purge program was conducted. For example, MERA Statewide Coordinator Jan BenDor noted that a study that her group conducted of East Lansing voters marked for cancellation in the 2006 purge effort revealed that about 25 percent of the voters were in fact properly registered and should not have been marked for cancellation. “Canceling voter registrations solely on the basis of returned mail can be highly inaccurate,” BenDor said. “Mail to a registration address can be returned by the post office for many reasons that have nothing to do with the validity of a voter’s registration. That’s why it is imperative for Michigan voters who have not recently voted to check this cancellation countdown list and, if they are on it, to take steps now to make sure they get off of it.” Michigan residents can learn more information about their voter registration status by calling (888) SOS-MICH or (888) 767-6424, or by visiting the Michigan Voter Information Center web site at: www.michigan.gov/vote. *Disclaimer: This search database was derived from information supplied by the Michigan Department of State and currently includes only those voters who were added to Michigan's cancellation countdown list in August 2006 and who remained on the list as of August 2008. It is possible that voters could have been added to the cancellation countdown list before or after August 2006, in which case their names would not show up in this database. In addition, it is possible that there are voters who fall within the categories described above who may have been inadvertently omitted from this database. Post-Election Audits in Michigan
January, 2009 Legislation for
Post-Election Audits in Michigan that MERA has written and proposed will
be introduced in the current legislative session by Rep. Rebekah Warren (Ann Arbor) and
cosponsored by Rep. Mark Meadows (East Lansing).
WHY AUDIT?At present there is rarely if ever any check on the accuracy of Michigan elections. Candidates are often loath to request recounts, even in very close elections, for fear of being labeled "sore losers" or "sour grapes." The Board of State Canvassers, under the leadership of Chris Thomas, head of Secretary of State Land's Bureau of Elections, has even asserted a dubious authority to reject legal recount petitions, at its sole discretion. ( Minutes of the Board of State Canvassers, 11/27/06, p. 2). The paper ballots that are the official record are typically processed once electronically during voting on election day and then locked away. They can be consulted again only if a court so orders or a recount petition is approved.No election system is perfect, but electronic vote counting, as it is currently practiced, is particularly risky. The machines have significantly high failure rates. Oakland Co. Clerk, Ruth Johnson detailed machine failures there in 2006 and again in 2008. The machines are also riddled with security vulnerabilities that could be used to alter an election outcome. See, for example, MERA's photographic documentary of how to bypass the seal on a Diebold tabulator. The 2004 U.S. presidential election is known to have been altered, in part by manipulating the electronic vote count. How then can Michigan voters know whether the electronic vote count is accurate? How can we know the declared winner of an election contest actually won? As long as we continue to rely on electronic vote counting on election night, the only way to know is to audit the vote count after the election! Legislative Update - Spring 2008
March 18. MERA
testified on an early voting bill,
HB 4090.
The House
committee expects to amend the bill before voting it up or down.
February, 2008. MERA supported two bills before the House Committee on Ethics and Elections - HB 4774 and HB 5739. The bills would allow any Michigan clerk to register or confirm voter identity in person for any MI jurisdiction. Both bills subsequently passed the House. Michigan Dems Back MERA Legislative Plan
Sat. Feb. 24, 2007. At the Michigan Democratic Party's state convention Saturday,
delegates resoundingly passed an election
reform resolution based on legislative proposals
developed by the Michigan Election Reform Alliance (MERA). Drafted by Mary Shindell of Scio
Township, the resolution was also endorsed two weeks earlier at the county convention of the
Washtenaw party committee.
The resolution embraces these key elements of the MERA plan:
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