The co-sponsors of Michigan’s legislation to demand proof of citizenship for the vote as the representative of the Bryan Postthumus State submits the bill to the clerk. The co-sponsors are, from left to right, the representatives Brian Begole, Jay Deboyer, Ann Bollin and Rachelle Smit. Smit, Bollin and Deboyer are former electoral clerks. (Graciousness of the House of Representatives of Michigan)
This article was Originally published by FlashingA non -profit press organization covering the administration of local elections and access to the vote. Voting votes is a non-profit press organization which reports to the access to the vote and the elections administration through the United States Register here for the free Michigan newsletter.
The state representative Rachelle Smit, a former local employee who thinks that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from President Donald Trump, will lead the Michigan House election committee under the direction of the new GOP.
Smit, a Republican from Martin, was appointed Chairman of the Chamber Elections Integrity Committee, Because he has now been renamed. His claims that the 2020 elections were stolen were demymorded, but have earned him approval of President Donald TrumpWho congratulated him as someone “who knows our elections is not secure and that there was attractive electoral fraud during the presidential election of 2020”.
The Chamber’s electoral committee led by Michigan’s GOP as “election integrity committee”
“I absolutely think it was stolen, yes, and I am not fired,” said Smit in an interview with the prolongation, repeating false claims that there were “voting dumps” In the early morning after election day in 2020.
In 2023, She supported That a group of supporters of Michigan Trump is accused of having created a list of voters forged for Trump after the 2020 elections, despite the victory of Joe Biden in Michigan, had done nothing wrong and said that Their actions were “completely legal”. She also supported Dar Leaf, Barry County Sheriff Who drew national attention to his efforts to investigate the 2020 elections.
Smit, who is also a pro tempore speaker of the Maison du Michigan, was canton clerk in Martin, in southwest Michigan, before running at the State Office. Last session, when the Democrats still controlled the Chamber, she was a minority vice-president of the Elections Committee.
Now, at the head of the Committee, she will direct her progress over the next two years on the legislation linked to the vote, the elections, the campaign finances, etc. This includes the effort led by the Republicans for modify the constitution of Michigan to demand that voters show proof of citizenshipWhat Smit Copardonne. The joint resolution of the Chamber, presented on Wednesday, will first stop at the electoral integrity committee before it probably worked in front of the full house.
“This is the utmost importance,” she said. “It will be the first business order we take.”
Like the other republicans of the house, Smit said that she had no reason to believe that the Michigan elections are not safe. On the contrary, she said, she clearly hopes to understand the residents of Michigan that legislators take the integrity of the state elections seriously.
The leader’s leader group points to a successful election in 2024
Groups dedicated to the expansion of access to the ballot boxes have addressed SMIT’s leadership position with cautious optimism. Promote the vote, a coalition of voting access groups which helped obtain proposal 2 of 2022 before the voters, said in a statement that he is impatiently awaiting to work with it “to ensure that our elections remain safe and accessible ”.
Melanie Ryska, clerk of the city of Sterling Heights and president of Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks, said that her group was determined to support the rights of voters and elections security. She also wondered how the election officials at all levels would pass false affirmations and conspiracy theories that grew up from the 2020 presidential election.
Ryska and the promotion of the vote said that the time of Smit as a clerk was likely to give it “a single overview” of the administration of the elections in the state. But since Michigan is a few months after another successful presidential election, Ryska questioned the need for larger rewritings of the law of elections. She said that she thought local officials “answered the call”, despite a wave of constitutional changes in recent years.
“Our clerks have shown that the elections are secure and that there are a lot of controls and sales in place,” said Ryska.
Smit’s other priorities for the Committee include the search for vulnerabilities in state electoral laws and the cleaning of laws on specific vacant posts such as that that its district saw last. When a commissioner of the Comté d’Allegan died in August just before the primary, the remaining commissioners appointed a new member. But The law is blurred On who should have been on the ballot in place of the deceased commissioner.
Smit presented a bill with two other Republicans and a Democrat last year to try to tackle it, but he did not leave the committee after the collapse of legislative activity in the House during the last weeks of the year.
The Michigan Voting Rights Act, also died at the end of the session after winning the support of the Michigan Senate, will not return. The package of bills would have expanded the availability of voting bulletins in different languages and would have greatly aimed to prevent the abolition of voters, among other changes. Supporters said he was aimed at filling the gaps in the federal voting rights that have been eroded by court decisions.
Smit had expressed his concerns about this package during the hearings of the latest session committees, and now that she heads the committee, she said that she “could not embark” with bills.
During a hearing on them in December, Smit said that she had heard a number of local clerks against it. The associations of the state clerks have remained neutral on the proposals, supporting the ideas behind them but expressing concerns about the funding and the additional burden of the clerks that have already managed a variety of changes in electoral law in recent years.
“It’s a very strong message that it is not the right way to do it,” she said last week.
Who is at the electoral integrity committee?
The other members of the Committee on the Republican side are the representative Joseph Fox, of Fremont, as vice-president and representatives Pat Outman of six lakes, Greg Alexander de Carsonville, Mike Hoadley of Gres and Joseph Pavlov of Smiths Creek. Each of these representatives co -sponsored the joint resolution of the Chamber which proposed the constitutional amendment of the evidence of quotation.
The Democrats of the Committee are the representatives. Stephen Wooden of Grand Rapids, Matt Koleszar of Plymouth and May Xiong of Warren. Wooden, who is in his first mandate in the Legislative Assembly, will be the vice-president of the minority.
Wooden admitted that he would not have much control on the agenda, but he told Votingat that he was looking forward to finding common ground with the members of the Republican Committee.
“I know that often, the election committee can be a place where you see some of the most bipartite and common sense legislation by working with the clerks to obtain mechanical modifications to our elections and guarantee that our elections are going well.” he said.
The committee should meet in the coming days, although no official time has yet been put.
