Michigan House to vote on election crime bill

The Michigan House of Representatives is set to vote next week on legislation that supporters say will protect the state’s elections from bad actors.

House Bill 5551, sponsored by Rep. Noah Arbit, D-West Bloomfield, would amend the Michigan Election Law to prohibit individuals convicted of election-related crimes from serving on the board of state or county canvassers, which certify the election results.

“Any public official, whether appointed or elected, who is unwilling to faithfully serve the will of the voters is unfit to hold this office,” testified a spokeswoman for Voters Not Politicians, which supports the bill. The Michigan Department of State also supports the bill.

Michigan Election Law already prohibits those convicted of election crimes from serving as election inspectors at precincts.

The bill lists a total of 45 offenses that qualify as election-related crimes, including:

• Knowingly making, publishing, disseminating, or circulating an assertion, representation, or statement of fact concerning a candidate that is false, deceptive, scurrilous, or malicious without the true name of the author being ascribed to the assertation, or knowingly causing such an assertion, representation, or statement to be made, published, disseminated, or circulated.

• Attempting to influence or interrupt a voter or deterring an individual from voting by means of bribery, menace, or other corrupt means.

• Breaking open or violating ballot box locks or seals before the final votes have been ascertained without legal authorization.

• Willfully destroying, mutilating, defacing, falsifying, or fraudulently removing or concealing any vote or other election documents.

• Fraudulently making any entry, erasure, or alteration of a vote or other election document or allowing another person to do so.

• Participating in a meeting of more than two individuals (other than immediate family) at which an absentee ballot is voted.

Pure Integrity for Michigan Elections opposed the bill.