Michigan ballot measure seeking voter ID, voter roll reviews submits 750,000 signatures
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LANSING, Mich. — An effort to place a voting measure on Michigan’s November ballot is moving ahead, thousands of signatures have been submitted to the Secretary of State on a ballot question supporters say will ensure only U.S. citizens can vote.
Americans for Citizen Voting says they handed over more than 750,000 signatures from all 83 counties, gathered by 17,000 volunteers.
The ballot campaign says the signatures represent an overwhelming, bipartisan show of support for election integrity.
“We saw in 2024 that non-citizens did vote in Michigan’s election, and yet nothing has been done to reform that system, to make certain that it doesn’t happen again,” Paul Jacob, chairman of Americans for Citizen Voting, said. “This ballot measure will make certain that it doesn’t happen again.”
The initiative would require photo ID to cast a ballot and implement a systematic review of Michigan’s qualified voter file.
It’s already illegal for non-citizens to vote and Michigan requires ID at the ballot box, but the campaign says it’s not enough.
“If they don’t have id, under current constitutional provisions, they simply sign a piece of paper and their ballot goes into the stack and is counted,” Jacob said. “We think it’s important that people show id and not have an easy loophole to not show it.”
The Secretary of State’s Office continues to insist there’s no evidence non-citizens have voted at a significant scale.
They report only 15 non-citizens has cast a ballot in the 2024 general election, representing .00028% of the more than 5.7 million votes cast.
“Michiganders are good people and we are smart people,” Melinda Billingsley, communications director at Voters Not Politicians, said. “What we don’t want to see is a bunch of extra red tape paperwork and bureaucracy, it’s slowing down our elections. We know our system, we know our clerks and we know that our elections are safe.”
Voting advocates say the ballot measure seeks to disenfranchise voters and point to support from out of state billionaires.
“What we’re seeing with this petition is part of a wider national power grab by selfish politicians, wealthy, wealthy elites, and those who are trying to take political power away from the voters, away from people,” Billingsley said.
Jacob said American for Citizen Voting’s effort is straightforward and well-intentioned, saying the organization has received thousands of contributions.
“This is an attempt to have elections that we can trust,” Jacob said. “When people contribute to fixing our broken election process, we think that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
The signatures gathered are well over the 446,000 needed, but the Bureau of Elections says they likely won’t certify them until after candidate signatures are done, which is in May.
