Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Wayne County Sheriff Raphael Washington. Photo: Samuel Robinson.
The Michigan Department of State on Monday announced a program for returning citizens to get IDs and register to vote will extend to Wayne County.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson came to the county’s new jail near New Center to announce the partnership with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office Monday at a press conference inside the Wayne County Justice Center on E. Ferry Street.
The program, which has registered 20,000 returning citizens since 2020, aims to ensure eligible released individuals obtain their state ID or driver’s license.
Wayne County is the latest community to partner with the department for its initiative to serve Michigan’s returning citizens.
In 2020, MDOS and MDOC partnered to help returning citizens with a successful reentry by providing a driver’s license or state ID upon parole. MDOS has launched similar partnerships with sheriff’s offices in Kent, Genesee, Ingham, and Washtenaw counties for returning citizens at county jails. Prior to the partnership in Wayne County, MDOS processed about 400 driver’s licenses or state IDs for returning citizens. More than 20,000 returning citizens have secured a driver’s license or state ID as of 2020, about 6,000 per year, Benson said.
The effort involves MDOS bringing its mobile office van to jails and prisons to process documents.
Benson and Wayne County Sheriff Raphael Washington stressed that Michigan’s returning citizens also have the right to vote once they exit prison.
Washington said about 60% of inmates do not have an ID.
Returning citizens who secure their driver’s license or state ID prior to their release are eligible to have their voter registration automatically activated or updated after MDOC verifies they have exited prison.
Inmates in jail can vote as long as they are not serving a sentence.
Benson said Michigan is a national leader in voter turnout. About 79% of eligible voters in Michigan participated in the latest presidential election, which the third-highest turnout rate in the nation. However, voter turnout in the city of Detroit remains low. The August 5 municipal primary election saw less than 20% of Detroiters voting.
“We see a lot of historically marginalized communities still not participating,” Benson said.
Washington said he’s constantly asking people to go out and vote.
“I don’t know why people are not getting out the vote,” Washington said. “I’m out on the street asking people to vote because if they vote, they win. If you don’t vote, than you don’t win.”
Benson said during her outreach efforts in places across the state that see lower voter turnout, she kept hearing from voters who believed they were not eligible to vote because of their criminal history, who are actually eligible.
“Programs like this are key to helping us ensure that people know that they can vote after they’ve served their sentence, and that’s actually what led us to start involving ourselves in leading in these programs all across the state,” Benson said.
Benson said Warren Evans approached her to start the program in Wayne County. She asked for the help of sheriffs in Macomb and Oakland to partner with the state to bring the program to more counties across the state.
As of Monday afternoon, 10 inmates had signed up at the Wayne County jail, the sheriff’s office said.
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