Tagged: elections

A formal investigation into possible election fraud by a congressional campaign will wait until after a state board meets next week.

The Board of State Canvassers is expected to formally reject petitions filed by Congressman Thaddeus McCotter’s re-election campaign. The petitions can then be turned over to the state Attorney General's office.

Attorney General Bill Schuette says the delay has not stopped his office from communicating with elections officials on the case.

"So it appears there is a problem, but we’ve not received anything officially yet from the Secretary of State’s office, and when we do, we’ll review it in a thorough fashion," said Schuette.

The Secretary of State’s office says it appears hundreds of signatures on McCotter’s nominating petitions were faked.

Schuette said it's a textbook example of how not to collect signatures.

"It's kind of elementary. When you run for class president, you gotta get the signatures to have the election, and it appears there’s a huge problem here," said Schuette.

McCotter has acknowledged problems with his petitions and says he plans to run as a write-in candidate on the Republican primary ballot in August.

Elections officials are scrambling to find eight new locations where Flint residents can vote in November’s election. 

The city’s five dozen voting precincts are located in 35 buildings around Flint.

But, the U.S. Justice Department says 4 churches used as polling places don’t meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.    And, the Flint School District is also closing 4 schools this summer that have been used as polling places. 

“We’re going to go ahead and close them and try to locate alternate sites, which is hard to do in a community such as Flint which is an older urban area," says Inez M. Brown, the Flint City Clerk. 

Brown says six of the eight polling places are located on Flint’s north side, which may make it more difficult to find enough appropriate locations. 

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Lawmakers in the Michigan House are debating proposed election law changes, including one that would require a voter to present a photo ID when applying for an absentee ballot in person.

The bills have passed the Republican-led Senate but Democrats object to some provisions. Democrats and a representative of the League of Women Voters told the House Redistricting and Elections Committee on Tuesday the proposals would create a barrier to voting for some residents, such as those who don't have driver's licenses.

Absentee voters could sign affidavits saying they don't have the ID and still pick up ballots, but those ballots could be challenged.

Another bill would require a photo ID or a birth certificate when registering to vote.

Supporters of the proposals say the requirements would protect against fraud.

People who want to put a question on the ballot could soon have to get their petitions pre-approved by a government panel before they could gather signatures. That’s under a measure that cleared the state House today on a party-line vote.

The measure could force current petition drives to get state approval and then start over. The petition drives would guarantee union organizing rights, require disclosure of businesses’ political spending, and boost renewable energy requirements on utilities.

Detroit officials are fast-tracking a process to change the way Council members represent the city.

Detroit voters approved a plan in November to elect seven of nine City Council members by district, when they approved a new city charter. Currently, all nine members represent the city at-large.