Michigan Senate Approves Bipartisan Election Reform Package

The Michigan Senate on Thursday passed a comprehensive legislative package aimed at combating election disinformation and reforming the state’s petition circulation process, garnering support from both Democrats and Republicans.

The bipartisan effort includes three key bills sponsored by Democratic State Senators Jeremy Moss of Bloomfield Township and Jeff Irwin of Ann Arbor. Senate Bills 529, 530, and 531 focus on ensuring the petition process is transparent and free from manipulation.

“Every election cycle, we hear reports of petition circulators engaging in deceptive practices that erode faith in the process to place candidates and proposals on the ballot,” Senator Moss said. “A person should be able to grow support for their cause based on its own merit, not by misrepresenting what the petitions will do.”

The legislation would prohibit paying petition circulators per signature, aligning Michigan with other states that have banned financial incentives that might encourage circulators to mislead voters. Additionally, circulators would be required to direct potential signers to a factual summary of the ballot proposal before collecting signatures.

Senator Irwin’s bill addresses another common issue in the petition process. “Michigan has a lively democracy that produces a lot of initiative petitions, and it can be hard for even the most informed voter to keep track of whether they have already signed a particular version of a petition,” Irwin explained. His legislation ensures that if a person signs a petition multiple times, one signature would still be counted rather than all being invalidated.

The package also includes Senate Bill 533, sponsored by Democratic State Senator Mary Cavanagh of Redford Township, which passed the Senate earlier this year. This legislation would ban false statements or misrepresentations concerning elections and establish penalties for violators.

“As someone who has been an election worker, I have witnessed firsthand the detrimental impacts that election disinformation can have on our democracy,” Cavanagh said. “In recent years, we have witnessed targeted disinformation campaigns within some of the most underserved communities in our state, like posting signs telling folks that polling places are closed or disingenuous robocalls with false election information.”

Michigan’s top election officials have voiced strong support for the measures. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson praised the legislation, noting that “petitions are meant to reflect the will of the people. But too many candidates and bad actors have manipulated our state’s petition circulation process for their own financial or political gain.”

Attorney General Dana Nessel echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that “voters deserve confidence, fairness and security in their election systems.” She added that the package would “help encourage civic engagement statewide, while closing a loophole in our current statute which we have seen bad actors misuse for their fraudulent aims.”

Despite passing the Senate, the legislation faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled House. The Irwin-Moss bills were referred to the House Election Integrity Committee, but Cavanagh’s bill was sent to the House Government Operations Committee when it passed the Senate in September. The Government Operations Committee is widely regarded in Lansing political circles as “the place where legislation goes to die,” and has yet to hold a hearing on Cavanagh’s bill.

In separate but related action, the Senate unanimously passed legislation creating a 45-day transparency window for new legislative earmarks before they can come up for a vote. Senate Bill 596 and House Bill 4420 represent a compromise between proposals for shorter 10-day and longer 60-day review periods.

The earmark transparency measures address concerns raised during this year’s budget negotiations. House Speaker Matt Hall, a Republican from Richland Township, had previously insisted on a substantial review period to examine where earmarked funds would be directed and who would benefit from them.

As these reform measures move through Michigan’s legislative process, they highlight ongoing efforts to strengthen election integrity and transparency in a state that has been at the center of national discussions about election administration since 2020.