Capitol News

State Rep. Luke Meerman has voted against Democrat legislation that would remove verification and validity measures enacted to prevent fraud. Senate Bills 603-04 amend Michigan Election Law by making several changes to the state’s recount process. Under current law, vote recounts may be conducted based on allegations of fraud or mistake. However, the new legislation removes fraud as a reason for a recount, states that recount petitions may only allege an error, and requires petitions to be based on the notion that the election results would have been different without that error.

Meerman stated it is a mistake to alter current laws that establish clear checks and balances, which give Michigan residents faith in poll workers, clerks, and election results. He argued that reducing protections is counterproductive when inadequacies exist within the state's election process that could lead to fraud. These inadequacies include the lack of a system to detect if someone votes in multiple states and the Secretary of State's failure to remove 170,000 names of people who no longer lived in Michigan from voter rolls until after being sued.

“Free and fair elections are the foundation of our democracy, and investigating fraud, wrongdoing, or violations of our laws is essential to ensuring their accuracy and validity,” Meerman said. “These bills create narrow conditions for an election recount. Our citizens already have so little trust left in our elections. This plan will only exacerbate that skepticism.”

Despite objections from Meerman and other Republicans, the bills were approved.