In a move that conservatives say will “deepen public distrust” of America’s election system, Democrats in Michigan’s legislature pushed through two bills along party lines last week that strip the power of local election officials to investigate allegations of fraud and double the fees of candidates who request ballot recounts, among other changes.
“Today, Democrats overturned 70 years of election law in order to commit a disgusting gutting of our election recount protections,” remarked Michigan State Senator Jim Runestad (R) following the passage of the measures last week. “The passage of this bill is a complete disgrace!”
At the heart of the controversy is Senate Bill 603, which removes the authority of state boards of canvassers to investigate allegations of voter fraud or ballot tampering. Under current Michigan state law, state boards of canvassers are made up of two Republican and two Democratic local election officials. But as emphasized by Runestad, allegations of fraud must now be turned over “to the hyper-partisan attorney general.”
State Senator Ruth Johnson (R) further underscored the importance of local officials being able to insure election integrity. “These are time-honored checks and balances that exist in our system,” she noted. “If we want people to have faith in the electoral process, we should not be taking away people’s rights to have allegations of election fraud investigated during a recount. There is a process in place now that empowers bipartisan boards of canvassers to play this role, and it simply should not be removed from the law.”
“Passing a law crippling checks and balances of our election system only further deepens public distrust,” added State Rep. Greg Markkanen (R). “The world is full of bad people who may do bad things, including defraud our elections. Our system must be robust and equipped with all the tools necessary to uncover and investigate all discrepancies.”
The new bills also stipulate that only alleged errors in counting can merit a recount, and only when those alleged errors could potentially change the outcome of the election. As explained by State Rep. Rachelle Smit (R), “Under current law, vote recounts may be done based on allegations of fraud or mistake, but the legislation voted on today not only removes fraud as a reason for a recount, but also states that recount petitions may only allege an error and requires petitions to be based on the notion that the election results would have been different without that error.”
Michigan is predicted to be one of the primary battleground states in the November elections, and its 16 electoral votes are likely to play a pivotal role in deciding the 2024 presidential race. In 2016, Republican Donald Trump edged Hillary Clinton by approximately 10,000 votes to win the state, which at the time was considered a huge upset. In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won the state by a more comfortable margin, but still by less than three percentage points over Trump.
In addition, the new legislation doubles the cost of a recount to $500, which must be paid for by the candidate requesting the recount, even in races that come down to single digits. As observed by State Rep. Ann Bollin (R) in a press release, “These additional fees might not be a problem for well-funded statewide campaigns, but they could be a significant obstacle for local candidates. Local races, like city council, school board, and township trustee elections, often come down to just a few votes. In such tight races, confidence in the results is paramount. Recounts are part of the process, and very rare.”
State Senator Runestad joined “Washington Watch” on Friday, pointing out that the local media in Michigan orchestrated a near blackout on coverage of the bills. “[I]n the state of Michigan, there’s only one radio station that will even permit any of the details,” he described. “[In] every one of the TV outlets, [there was] complete censorship, [in] all of the print media, complete censorship.”
Runestad went on to detail what occurred in 2020 when an investigation was attempted into suspected election corruption in Detroit.
“[In] 2016, 72% of all the precincts could not be recounted [in Detroit]. So the state gave them more time and money to fix the problem. And then in 2020, the fix was they went from 72 to 79% of all of the precincts could not be recounted, mainly because an overcount of broken, open ballot seals and corruption all over the place. … So the board of canvassers said, ‘We’re going to find out. We’re holding up the certification until we get some answers.’ What then happened is a tsunami of death threats from all over the country [and] from within the state to the Republican canvassers saying, ‘You had better certify this election or you’re done. We’re going to kill you.’ … [The] woman Republican [and] her daughter’s school and home address were doxxed. A woman sent graphic photos of a tortured, bloody, murdered child …to the mother and said this will happen to your daughter if you don’t certify the election.”
Runestad continued, “[Democratic prosecutors] waited four and a half years to finish the investigation, and they gave this horrific woman a five-day suspended sentence. So you can see this lawfare in Michigan. This is the way they roll. And so now the one area that we had independent, bipartisan people in every county who can look at this [was] stripped out of the bill, [which] stripped out their ability to do any kind of subpoena power.”
The measures now move to Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) desk, where they will likely be signed into law.
Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.
