LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – A former Michigan Secretary of State is speaking out about Proposal 2, saying it “guts the integrity out of elections in a sneaky, conniving way.”
Current State Senator Ruth Johnson, who served as Michigan’s Secretary of State from 2011-2018, spoke out against Proposal 2 on “The Steve Gruber Show” on Monday morning. She said in order to understand Proposal 2, voters must understand what they agreed to put in the state’s constitution when voters approved a measure in 2018.
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Johnson pointed out that the passage of Proposal 3 in 2018 “laid the foundation of trouble” for Proposal 2, which will appear on the November 8 ballot. She said Proposal 3 allows a person to register to vote without ever being seen in person.
“It enables people to register and vote 14 days prior to [the election] or on election day,” Johnson said. “We don’t have any real time computers so we can’t check whether to see if these individuals are eligible to vote or have already voted in other locations.”
Johnson said she refers to Proposal 2 as “Phase 2 of gutting our integrity of our elections.”
Among other things, Proposal 2 would create a nine day early voting period, which she said will create a strain on local clerk’s offices and citizens.
“Michigan is different than almost any other state in this nation,” Johnson said. “Our local clerks conduct the elections. They’re more accountable and transparent. How are you going to have clerks run nine days of elections? Half of them don’t have township offices. [That]means we’re likely to lose our local control and it would go higher up the political food chain.”
In addition, Proposal 2 allows the acceptance of overseas ballots six days after the election and prohibits voter identification.
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“How will we come up with who won [on election night] if we do this?” Johnson said. “How would we ever know who’s who?”
Johnson took issue with the way the ballot language is worded, saying it is “deceptive.”
Michigan voters will head to the polls on November 8.
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