Democratic state lawmakers are again hoping to allow no-reason absentee voting in Michigan. Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson has said recently that more people who have died or moved out of state must be removed from the state’s voter registration database before lawmakers will agree to stop putting conditions on who can vote absentee. The state Bureau of Elections says significant progress has been made to clean up Michigan’s voter files. “We are (removing people from the files) much more quickly than we did before and probably more thoroughly than we did before,”
Bureau of Elections Director Christopher Thomas told the state House Elections Committee last week. Thomas says the bureau removed 170,000 people from Michigan’s Qualified Voter File after the last election. Democrats say that’s an indication that now is the time to move forward with no-reason absentee voting.
“Fine, if that’s a problem, let’s fix the problem – it sounds like the problem is fixed – and move forward,” said state Rep. Gretchen Driskell, D-Saline, the top Democrat on the House Elections Committee. “But we’re behind other states as far as accessing elections and making it easier for people to vote.”
Full Article: Democrats Renew Push for No Reason Absentee Voting | WMUK.