Michigan: An Incumbent Falls Afoul of Election Laws Designed to Protect Incumbents | New York Times

Political pros know better than anyone that election laws are typically crafted by statehouse lawmakers with enough hedges, hurdles and moats to insulate party machines and shield incumbents against insurgent challengers. That’s the nature of the power game. All the more shocking then to Washington’s political class that Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, was denied a place on the ballot this week. He was widely expected to win his primary this summer as a prelude to a re-election stroll into his 26th term in Congress. Instead, Wayne county officials ruled that most of the 1,236 voter signatures submitted for ballot qualification by Mr. Conyers — one of the civil rights pioneers and Democratic wheel-horses of Washington — were invalid under state law.

Michigan: Conyers files federal lawsuit in fight to stay on primary ballot | Detroit Free Press

U.S. Rep. John Conyers is waging a legal war in federal court over his right to run in the primary, challenging the constitutionality of a state election law that is keeping his name off the ballot. The law that’s got Conyers riled up is a statute that says if you want to gather signatures on a petition to get a candidate on a ballot, you must be registered to vote. Three Conyers supporters filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court Monday, arguing that law is unconstitutional because it violates their political speech and political association rights. Conyers, who turns 85 on Friday, joined the lawsuit today, two days after Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett cited that law in announcing that the longtime congressman won’t appear on the Aug. 5 primary ballot after a majority of signatures turned in to certify him for a 26th term were invalidated. Garrett invalidated more than 700 signatures because five petition circulators were not properly registered to vote. Those signatures should have stayed put, argues Conyers, the second-longest serving member of Congress who has represented parts of metro Detroit since 1965.

Michigan: Wayne County clerk: I won’t allow Conyers on August primary ballot | Detroit Free Press

he fate of U.S. Rep. John Conyers’ re-election campaign now lies with the Secretary of State’s Office after Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett announced Tuesday the longtime congressman won’t appear on the Aug. 5 primary ballot after a majority of signatures turned in to certify him for a 26th term were invalidated. Conyers plans to file an appeal with the state office, and has three days to do so. The office then will review the work done by Wayne County, said Chris Thomas, director of elections for the state. A decision won’t come until some time next week, he said. “It’s a verification process, we’ll be looking at registration status and the spreadsheet they provided us. It won’t take all that long,” he said. Conyers also could be headed down the same path as Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who waged a write-in campaign in last summer’s primary, eventually prevailing over Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon in the general election.

Michigan: ACLU: Michigan law that bars Conyers from ballot unconstitutional | The Detroit News

The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Monday in federal court to argue U.S. Rep. John Conyers belongs on the Aug. 5 primary ballot because it’s unconstitutional for Michigan to require that petition collectors be registered voters. The ACLU is suing on behalf of two of Conyers’ constituents, including Tiara Willis-Pittman, one of Conyers’ petition circulators whose signatures were tossed because she was deemed an unregistered voter at the time of collection. The lawsuit comes on the eve of a scheduled decision by Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett whether Conyers qualifies for the ballot. A clerk staff investigation released Friday found the Detroit Democrat has 592 signatures — 408 less than the 1,000 required to make the ballot for the 13th Congressional District. More than 640 signatures for Conyers, 84, were disqualified after a challenge by primary opponent the Rev. Horace Sheffield of Detroit resulted in a clerk office staff’s finding that the petition circulators were not registered voters as required by state law. Willis-Pittman, 19, had submitted 80 signatures.

Michigan: Homeless groups say clients struggle for IDs | Detroit Free Press

Too many homeless people in Michigan are blocked from improving their lives by unreasonable requirements to have state identification cards, according to representatives of metro Detroit agencies who met Friday at a conference in Waterford. “This has been a growing problem for years and it’s reached a crisis point,” said Elizabeth Kelly, executive director of the Hope Hospitality and Warming Center, a homeless shelter in Pontiac. Homeless people rarely possess driver’s licenses, so most depend on ID cards issued by Secretary of State offices. But to get the state ID card demands unreasonable proof of identity, said Kelly and others at the Homeless Healthcare Collaboration conference. They said rules were tightening at Social Security offices too, and that’s keeping some homeless people from accessing the services they need. “You have people going to the Secretary of State and being told they have to have a Social Security card, and so they go to a Social Security office and they’re told they have to have a state ID card — it’s a classic case of Catch-22,” University of Michigan social research professor Gregory Markus told the audience.

Michigan: Civil rights group seeks probe of Detroit voter registration for Conyers petition circulators | The Detroit News

A civil rights group is calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate how two petition collectors for U.S. Rep. John Conyers were handled when they were registered to vote by the Detroit City Clerk’s office. Discrepancies surrounding when the two were registered to vote led Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett to tentatively invalidate 314 petition signatures they collected for Conyers’ re-election campaign. If the signatures remain disqualified, Conyers, the longest-serving African American in Congress, could be thrown off the Aug. 5 primary ballot. The Rev. Charles Williams II, president of the Michigan Chapter of the National Action Network, said he sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Barbara McQuade, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, to look into the inconsistencies in the matter. On Friday, Garrett said she preliminarily has disqualified the signatures collected by Tiara Willis-Pittman, 19, and Daniel Pennington, 23, of Detroit.

Michigan: State wants more training in Flint after election recount snafu | MLive.com

The state Bureau of Elections head says Flint’s inability to recount absentee ballots from the November election here was “unfortunate and disheartening” and says the bureau will work with Clerk Inez Brown and her staff to ensure that training and written staffing plans are completed before the next election. Sally Williams, director of the Michigan Bureau of Elections Election Liaison Division, made the comments in a four-page letter to Genesee County Clerk-Register John Gleason, who had asked the state in December to review why the county Board of Canvassers could not recount absentee ballots from Flint’s Nov. 5 election.

Michigan: $80,000: Estimated cost for Grand Rapids to hold special election for streets tax | MLive.com

A May ballot proposal for a streets tax would cost more and likely get less participation than if it were put on the November ballot along with county and state elections. But a special election would give Grand Rapids more time to change tax forms if the proposal fails. City Commission on Tuesday, Jan. 28, will consider calling a special election for May 6. Grand Rapids voters, who in 2010 authorized a 5-year income-tax increase, will be asked to continue that increase for another 15 years and earmark the money for streets. Acting City Clerk Darlene O’Neal said holding an election in May will cost Grand Rapids an extra $75,000 to $80,000.

Michigan: Snyder: State of State won’t repeat pledge for easier absentee, voter registration | The Detroit News

Gov. Rick Snyder will set the tone for his re-election campaign and preview upcoming budget battles in tonight’s State of the State address. He is expected to talk about education, discuss what to do with a projected $1 billion surplus, renew the quest for more permanent road repair money and dwell on his accomplishments. What won’t be included is a repeat of his pledge from last year to join Secretary of State Ruth Johnson in seeking no-reason absentee voting and online voter registration — initiatives that are not popular among the Republican legislative majority. “I don’t think that’s something I’m going to emphasize because there was some effort to do that last year that didn’t work,” Snyder said in an interview Tuesday at the North American International Auto Show. “There’s a limited opportunity window, and given that it’s an election year, I think there are other things that will be priorities.”

Michigan: Court Won’t Hear Appeal Over Sore Loser Law | Associated Press

The Supreme Court won’t hear an appeal over Michigan’s sore loser law that kept Gary Johnson from appearing as a Libertarian presidential candidate on the state ballot after running in the Republican primary. The high court Monday refused to hear an appeal from Johnson and the Libertarian Party of Michigan. Johnson in the 2012 presidential election ran as a GOP presidential candidate in the primary, and then tried to run as the Libertarian presidential nominee.

Michigan: Investigation Sought Of Non-Citizen Voting In Michigan | Associated Press

Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson says she’s asked the state Attorney General’s office to investigate 10 people who aren’t U.S. citizens but have voted in past Michigan elections. In a letter to Attorney General Bill Schuette, Johnson said they were referring the cases “for  investigation, and if appropriate, prosecution. The law is clear – you must be a U.S. citizen to register to vote and to  vote on Election Day,” Johnson said in a statement. “We have races that are decided on a  handful of votes, and ballots cast by ineligible voters cancel out those by legitimate voters.”

Michigan: 6 ways to fix long voting lines, and 6 Grand Rapids polling places still at risk | MLive.com

Long voting lines at some Grand Rapids polling places during the November 2012 presidential election were caused by many factors, a task force led by two former U.S. attorneys reported this week to city commissioners. … Too many poll workers were inadequately trained for the job. The city should recruit workers with laptop computer skills, and increase pay for workers who are bilingual or proficient in use of the e-poll book. The city also should hire a training consultant to help the city clerk develop a new training model for poll workers, and then evaluate workers to determine whether or not they should be hired again for the next election.

Michigan: Judge won’t block Detroit City Clerk from mailing absentee ballots | Detroit Free Press

A Wayne County Circuit judge denied a request today to stop the Detroit City Clerk’s office from sending out absentee ballots. Judge Patricia Fresard heard arguments today in response to a challenge filed by city clerk candidate D. Etta Wilcoxon, the group Citizens United Against Corrupt Government and activist Robert Davis. They argued that the Detroit Election Commission should have held an open meeting to approve the absentee ballots for the November election after they were printed and before Winfrey’s office put them in the mail. The group on Tuesday filed a request for a temporary restraining order halting the process, which Fresard denied. Fresard noted that there was no claim that anything was actually incorrect on the ballots. Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey explained that she started mailing out the bulk of the 30,000 absentee ballots on Friday. She said the commission approved the names on the ballots prior to the primary in August, and she began printing them around Sept. 17 to ensure those in the military received them in time to vote.

Michigan: Wayne County judge schedules hearing on Detroit’s absentee ballots | The Detroit News

City Clerk Janice Winfrey must appear in court Wednesday to respond to allegations that absentee ballots for the November election have been printed and distributed without the approval of the city’s election commission. Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Patricia Fresard entered an order late Tuesday requiring Winfrey to appear for a 9 a.m. show-cause hearing to answer questions under oath about the printing and distribution of the ballots, union activist Robert Davis said. Davis, of Citizens United Against Corrupt Government, along with D’Etta Wilcoxon, who is Winfrey’s challenger for city clerk in the Nov. 5 election, asked the judge for a temporary restraining order on claims the ballots that Winfrey is sending out to absentee voters ballots that are “unlawful and illegal” and have not been approved by the city’s election commission, as called for under state election law. Davis said the absentee ballots were distributed after the Wayne County Board of Canvassers certified the election on Thursday.

Michigan: Canvassers certify Detroit mayoral recount that changed just 9 votes | The Detroit News

The Wayne County Board of Canvassers voted Thursday to certify a recount of the Aug. 6 primary election — which only changed nine votes in the Detroit mayoral election. The board Thursday decided to dismiss all fraud charges alleged by primary mayoral candidate Tom Barrow. The panel’s action means former Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan still won the Aug. 6 primary with 52 percent of the vote despite losing nine votes and will face Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, who received 30 percent of the primary vote, in the Nov. 5 general election. Melvin “Butch” Hollowell, attorney for the Duggan campaign, said the board did a thorough job, even going as far as hiring a handwriting expert. .

Michigan: Board dismisses dozens of Detroit mayoral primary ballot fraud complaints | The Detroit News

Detroit— The Wayne County Board of Canvassers on Monday shot down dozens of complaints by former Detroit mayor candidate Tom Barrow alleging ballots were fraudulently filled out at the August primary. Barrow questioned an estimated 40-50 ballots covering several districts. His accusations that the writing on many of the ballots matched prompted canvassers to hire a handwriting expert to compare 19 ballots. The results, which canvassers received Monday, showed it was “highly probable” different people filled out the ballots Barrow questioned. The findings prompted Melvin “Butch” Hollowell, the legal counsel for mayoral candidate and former Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan, to ask the canvassers to throw out all of the handwriting-related complaints from Barrow.

“We have a ruling by your expert,” Hollowell said to the board. “We should be allowed to rely on that expert.”

Michigan: Handwriting experts see differences in Detroit absentee ballots from August | Detroit Free Press

The Wayne County Board of Canvassers will continue going through challenged ballots today with hopes to wrap up a recount of the City of Detroit’s election before the week is out. At Monday’s board meeting, the findings of a handwriting expert hired by the board to examine ballots from the election was shared with the public. The expert, who was hired to check for similarity in handwriting, reportedly found “significant differences” in the writings examined, according to the board’s chairwoman. At least one challenger has said that some absentee ballots appear to have been been filled in by the same person. The expert, Robert D. Coleman with East Lansing consulting firm Speckin Forensic Laboratories, also said in his report to the board, dated Sunday, that he examined the writing for naturalness, formation of the words, pen lifts from the ballots and how hard the pen was pressed to paper when writing the response, among other things, said Chairwoman Carol Larkin. “My microscopic examinations of handwriting features of each entry on each of the 19 ballots and my side-by-side comparisons of like letters and letter conbinations between the 19 ballots revealed … there are a number of significant differences between the 19 ballots,” Larkin read from Coleman to the board.

Michigan: Cost of recounts soars in legislation passed by Michigan House | Detroit Free Press

Asking for a recount of an election could get a whole lot more expensive under a bill passed by the state House of Representatives on Thursday. Currently, a candidate requesting a recount must pay $10 per precinct to get a recount underway. Under the bill passed Thursday on a 95-9 vote, that amount would increase to $25 per precinct. And for candidates who lost by more than 50 votes, it would cost them $125 per precinct if they asked for a recount. The bill was drafted long before the election mess in Detroit, where the votes have been counted multiple times by city, county and state officials.

Michigan: 3 men to be charged with illegal possession of absentee ballots | Detroit Free Press

Three men, including a Hamtramck City Council candidate in August’s primary election, are being charged with returning absentee ballots that did not belong to them, state Attorney General Bill Schuette and Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s offices announced today. Hamtramck Deputy City Clerk August Gitschlag told authorities that three people had delivered multiple absentee ballots to City Hall in violation of state election law, which says those in possession of ballots must be the voter, a relative, mail carrier or authorized official.

Michigan: Canvassers in Detroit mayoral recount send some ballots to prosecutor, judge | Detroit Free Press

Six weeks after Detroiters cast their votes for mayor, City Council and clerk, ballots are still being examined, counted and analyzed as the Wayne County Board of Canvassers looks into allegations of fraud. The board spent Tuesday poring through ballots at Cobo Center and made some interesting discoveries. Among them: Some absentee ballots in which Mike Duggan’s name had been typed onto the ballot, some absentee ballots were cast using pencil, and some absentee ballots in which corrective fluid was used. The board voted to send the ballots that had Duggan’s name typed in to the Wayne County prosecutor and the chief judge at the Wayne County Circuit Court for investigation.

Michigan: Elections workers slog through Detroit mayoral recount | Detroit Free Press

Wayne County elections workers are expected to begin their eighth day recounting ballots from disputed Detroit elections this morning, and little information is being made available on how much longer the recount will take — or how much it is costing. County officials said Monday that about 80% of the ballots have been counted. Paperwork then has to be completed after the count. Delphine Oden, Wayne County’s director of elections, declined to say Monday when she expected the recount to end. The recount was approved by the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, which is looking into allegations of fraud detailed in a petition filed by former mayoral candidate Tom Barrow. Barrow’s allegations include, among other things, that the number of applications for absentee ballots was lower than the number of absentee votes cast, and that similar handwriting appears on several ballots cast for former Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan, who will face Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon in November’s general election. Carol Larkin, chair of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, said the overall cost for the recount appears headed closer to $100,000 than the $500,000 price tag Barrow has suggested. “We won’t know the total until it’s done,” she said. “It is going to get costly, though.”

Michigan: Board of Canvassers to hire handwriting expert for review of Detroit primary recount | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

The Wayne County Board of Canvassers decided Saturday to hire a handwriting expert to review ballots from Detroit’s August primary election. The decision came as the board met at Cobo Center to consider more than 170 challenges filed so far in the latest recount of the primary. The top vote-getters in the mayor’s race, as certified by the state — former Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan and Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon — will face each other in the November general election. Despite the decision to hire a handwriting expert, several challengers criticized the 19 samples that would be reviewed as too small to be representative.

Michigan: Detroit mayoral ballot recount meets challenges right off the bat | Detroit Free Press

Moments after the recount of Detroit’s mayoral race ballots began Tuesday, the first hand went up from a challenger citing an issue. Other hands were soon to follow. So went the first day of recounting ballots after former mayoral candidate Tom Barrow and others alleged fraud in the elections process in several city races. “This is an investigation,” Barrow said Tuesday at Cobo Center, where the recount was being conducted. “We’re seeing thousands of ballots in the same handwriting. All for the write-in. All for (mayoral candidate) Mike Duggan. These are clearly fraudulent ballots — and we’re just getting started.” Tuesday morning, Wayne County Director of Elections Delphine Oden told observers and poll workers that once ballots were taken from ballot boxes, county workers assembled for the recount would begin by holding some ballots faceup, giving challengers from the various campaigns time to examine them, before putting them facedown and moving through the votes.

Michigan: Recount starts in Detroit primary races | The Detroit News

The Wayne County Board of Canvassers Tuesday began a recount of Detroit’s Aug. 6 primary election that was certified a week ago. A total of eight recount petitions were filed and accepted, including a request by Tom Barrow who said he seeks to uncover fraud in the effort. Barrow has raised a number of issues, including challengers who claim to have seen similar handwriting on a number of ballots. The Wayne County Clerk’s Office is not sure how long the recount will take, but by law it must be finished within the next 20 days, spokeswoman Jina Sawani said Tuesday. Barrow spokesman Geoffrey Garfield said things are “going on fine” so far, but he is not ready to say whether fraud will be discovered. In November 2009, Barrow requested a recount after losing to Mayor Dave Bing 58 percent to 42 percent and claimed voter fraud. The recount resulted in a change of few votes, but 60,000 regular and absentee ballots could not be recounted because of irregularities.

Michigan: Wayne County canvassers vote to recount Detroit mayoral ballots | Detroit Free Press

It may be hard to believe but the primary election in Detroit still is not settled. And today makes exactly one month since voters cast ballots for mayor, city council and city clerk. The Wayne County Board of Canvassers voted Thursday to recount ballots from Detroit’s August primary, based on a petition from former mayoral candidate Tom Barrow, who alleged fraud in the election process. It will be the fourth time ballots from Detroit’s mayoral race will be counted. Detroit elections workers counted the ballots initially, then workers from the Wayne County Elections Division verified the counts to try and certify the results. But the certification came from the Board of State Canvassers after the Wayne County board found issues they said called for state intervention.

Michigan: State elections director: Re-tabulation prevented disenfranchisement of over 24,000 Detroit voters | MLive.com

The state Board of Canvassers voted Tuesday to certify election results from Detroit’s Aug. 6 primary election after staffers reviewed write-in ballots and calculated totals that differed vastly from Wayne County numbers. Michigan Bureau of Elections workers spent days re-tabulating write-in ballots from 385 of Detroit’s 614 precincts after Wayne County’s Board of Canvassers declined to certify results because of questions surrounding the way mayoral write-in votes were initially counted. In some precincts, poll workers did not use hash marks to count write-in votes, leading the County Clerk’s office to seek to disqualify thousands of votes and calling mayoral candidate Mike Duggan’s overwhelming write-in victory into question. The state unsealed ballot containers and reviewed votes from precincts where there were discrepancies between the county’s vote summary and statements of votes prepared by elections inspectors.

Michigan: Detroit’s mayoral primary certified; decertification, recount efforts begin | The Detroit News

The Board of State Canvassers unanimously voted Tuesday to certify Detroit’s primary election results and declare former Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan the top vote-getter in the Aug. 6 contest. The results were certified by the two Democrats and two Republicans, but an attorney indicated there will be an effort next week to decertify the mayoral primary election results. The state’s tally shows Duggan with 48,716 votes or 51.7 percent of the vote to Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon’s 28,391 votes or 30.1 percent. The state stepped into the primary vote-counting controversy when the Wayne County Board of Canvassers didn’t certify the vote counts of the county clerk or Detroit clerk. But Tuesday’s certification of the primary vote will start recount efforts filed to Wayne County, which could take weeks to complete. Absentee ballots for the general election are set to be sent to voters on Sept. 21. Officials expressed concern a recount could delay absentee ballots being mailed.

Michigan: Appeals court tosses judge’s restraining order on state’s review of Detroit ballots | Detroit Free Press

The Michigan Court of Appeals today tossed out a lower court’s restraining order that could have irreparably delayed the Board of State Canvassers’ review of Detroit’s mayoral election. A three-judge appeals panel ruled that Ingham County Circuit Judge Joyce Draganchuk’s order issued Thursday in a lawsuit brought by Detroit City Clerk candidate D. Etta Wilcoxon was made moot because the canvassers had already completed their review of disputed write-in ballots from the city’s Aug. 6 primary election. The judges — Donald Owens, Michael Kelly and Amy Ronayne Krause — also ruled that the board “must be permitted to fulfill its statutory duty to certify the election results” within a 10-day period, as required by state law, and that the canvassers’ work will not harm a recount of ballots sought by Wilcoxon. PDF: Court of Appeals lifts restraining order

Michigan: State To Recount Write-In Votes In Detroit Mayoral Primary | CBS

Members of the State Board of Canvassers voted 4-0 Tuesday to re-tally Detroit’s mayoral primary results, which means they’ll soon be rolling up their sleeves to recalculate what could become one of the most pivotal elections in Detroit history. The issue erupted after the Detroit city clerk’s office posted results that showed write-in candidate Mike Duggan handily defeating Benny Napoleon. But when the votes went to Wayne County for certification, the county board found Detroit workers had not used hashmarks to represent every five votes counted — so they tossed out 18,000 write-in ballots where hashmarks weren’t used in their tabulation. Without the 18,000 votes, Napoleon became the unofficial victor. Then the state stepped in and said those votes couldn’t be tossed out — so now Michigan is going to look at the ballots again. The recalculation is expected to last a few days.

Michigan: State takes up Detroit’s disputed election today, seeks to finalize mayor count | Detroit Free Press

State election officials will meet in Detroit this morning in an effort to finalize disputed results of the city’s Aug. 6 mayoral primary election. The state’s review of the election is ongoing and might not be finished by today’s public meeting of the Board of State Canvassers, said Fred Woodhams, spokesman for the secretary of state. The state board of two Democrats and two Republicans will meet at 10:30 a.m. at Cadillac Place, 3044 W. Grand Blvd. The state took over the job of verifying the Detroit primary results after the Wayne County Board of Canvassers last week refused to certify results prepared by the county clerk’s staff that differed greatly from unofficial results the city’s elections department compiled on election night.