Board of Canvassers Deadlocks on Non-Citizen Voting Proposal

Lansing, MI – Today, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers (BOC) deadlocked on whether to approve a petition to mandate proof of citizenship before voting for the November ballot. After hours of deliberation, the BOC deadlocked on almost every challenged signature and even on the final count of valid signatures. The margin for approval started razor-thin, at only five signatures.

Despite playing fast and loose with the rules when the Michiganders for Money Out of Politics (MMOP) petition signatures came before the BOC last month, the Democrat members of the board viciously scrutinized every single signature submitted by Americans for Citizen Voting (ACV). They almost exclusively voted as a bloc and held ACV to a much different standard.

One of the main issues was whether to accept signatures that were affirmed by affidavit from voters who had signed the petition. These signatures had been thrown out by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s Bureau of Elections (BOE) because, according to the BOE, they did not match the signatures in the Qualified Voter File (QVF). In response, many voters signed a notarized affidavit stating that the signatures were true and that they did sign the petition. 

Sadly, the Democrats on the BOC made it clear that they did not trust the notary process or affidavits, despite the fact that affidavits are currently allowed as identity verification when voting in lieu of an actual voter I.D.

“It is disappointing, but unsurprising, that Democrats change their tune on affidavits when it suits their political purposes. The Democrat members of the Board of Canvassers used every tool at their disposal today to suppress the will of the voters,” said Gabe Butzke, a spokesperson for Michigan Forward Network. “We’re hopeful that the courts will see through this political gamesmanship, and respect the efforts of the hundreds of thousands of Michiganders who signed a petition hoping to protect our elections.”