Great Lakes Wire

Secure MI Vote, the group behind a petition drive to enact voter ID and other reforms of the state’s election laws, has submitted its signatures to the Bureau of Elections for verification.

Jamie Roe, spokesperson for the group, said that they were “extremely confident” that they have the 340,000 of the needed verifiable signatures among the 514,000 they submitted to send the initiative to the Legislature.

But, Roe said, it’s unclear how long Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, may delay the verification process. She is on record as opposing the reforms, which also include a ban on election officials accepting private funds to underwrite the cost of administering elections.  

“It really shouldn’t take that long,” Roe told Great Lakes Wire. “You take samples out and check them. But Benson has used the office in the past for political reasons, so we are not optimistic.”

Roe added that they will pressure Benson publicly to verify the signatures in a timely manner.

“She’s up for re-election in 90 days and we plan to let voters know if she sits on this,” he said.

When asked about timing for the verification, Tracy Wimmer, director of media relations for Benson, replied to Great Lakes Wire in an email: “Petitions submitted for the 2024 ballot will be processed and reviewed by the Bureau of Elections when they have capacity, and when such work would not interfere with them administering two elections this year.”

The Legislature previously approved similar measures in the past in bill form but all were vetoed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Other measures in the initiative include prohibiting the secretary of state’s office from mass mailing absentee ballots. The initiative also provides for the funding of ID cards for those with no valid ID.

Public surveys have shown that voters strongly support voter ID and other election safeguards.

Secure MI Vote missed a June 1 deadline for submitting the signatures when it was reported that that five gubernatorial candidates in the Republican primary were knocked off the ballot for submitting fraudulently signed petitions. The candidates blamed paid circulators for the bad petitions. Secure MI Vote also relied in part on paid circulators.