By Godfrey Dillard
“Back in 2014, during the Republican Party’s heydays, I was the Democratic Party’s nominee for Michigan Secretary State. At that time, I was roundly criticized by the main-stream media for many of my then-controversial proposals; namely, early voting and same-day voter registration, no-reason absentee ballots, Super-Store secretary of state service centers, efforts to increase access to the secretary of state services to marginalized citizens by refocusing of budgetary priorities, and promoting petition drives to help these proposals become law whenever the Republican-controlled legislature opposed them. One newspaper even suggested I was “unqualified” for my audacity.
For the upcoming elections, Secretary of State, Joycelyn Benson, is keeping her finger on the forward-button. She recently announced her department will be sending out unsolicited absentee ballot applications to 7.7 million registered voters in Michigan. It is a rebuke to Republican-backed voter suppression policies, which are tied to dubious and unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. In Michigan, this new salvo may have profound effects on the coming local and national elections.
Needless to say, there will be a legal challenge by the Republican Party. In the past, opponents have been successful before Michigan courts stopping mass mailings of absentee ballot applications.
The Republican challenge will be based on a 2008, obscure, unpublished opinion by a Michigan Court of Appeal’s tribunal, which included then Court of Appeals judge and former Michigan Attorney General, Bill Schuette, called Fleming v. Macomb County Clerk.
In Fleming, the court ruled unconstitutional the Macomb County Clerk’s mass mailing of absentee ballot applications. The case relied on the following facts: the applications discriminated in favor of a narrow portion of voters, they were limited to persons over 60-years of age; the applications were sent out by a county clerk; and it violated Art. 2, Section 4 of the Michigan Constitution.
This time around a different legal outcome is more likely; because the mass mailing of absentee ballot applications is being done by a current Secretary of State, Michigan’s principal elections official, not a local county clerk.
The legal trump card is the 2018 Michigan Ballot Proposal 18-3, which changed Art. 2, section 4 of the Michigan Constitution concerning absentee ballots.
Art. 2, Section 4 clearly states that election officials have additional authority to make absentee ballots more readily available to voters. Before absentee ballot votes can be counted, a registered voter needs to fill out an application to get an absentee ballot.
Applications are therefore essential to fulfilling the purposes of the new law.”
“Finally, sending out the applications, now, during the COVID-19 pandemic provides additional compelling, common-sense support to help the public vote in a safe and timely manner.
Receiving an application, however, does not guarantee one will vote. But audacity certainly helps. Let’s make it happen. Every vote counts.”
Godfrey Dillard is a private practice attorney with notable expertise in civil-rights cases.
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