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Some Michigan lawmakers want to make voting easier

Paulette Parker
/
Michigan Radio

State senators are making voting laws an issue this year. A mostly Democratic group of senators has introduced a set of bills they say will make voting easier for everyone.

One of the bills would allow people to preregister to vote when they turn 16 – as long as they have a driver’s license or a state ID card.

Democratic Senator Steve Bieda is a bill sponsor. Calling the legislation innovative, he said the state needs to keep up with modern times when it comes to voting. 

“It’s been used with some great success in a number of other states,” he said. “It would save money and frankly it would help encourage younger people, as a rite of passage, to register to vote.”

Another bill would allow for electronic filing of voter registration applications, and the other would allow no-reason absentee voting.

Bieda called them “common sense” reforms.

“We are a service industry,” he said. “We serve the public, and we serve at the public’s discretion. This is a way of allowing people to exercise their right to vote and register more easily.”

The State House of Representatives also unveiled a voting reform package two weeks ago. Spearheaded by Democrats, their package also includes no-reason absentee voting.

Bieda said the issue of making voting easier and accessible shouldn’t be a party issue.

“Philosophically what we believe in is that every citizen has a right to vote, every vote should be counted, and everybody has a right at the table to make their voice heard,” he said. “And they do that at the ballot box.”

Copyright 2017 Michigan Radio

Kate Wells is a Peabody Award-winning journalist and co-host of the Michigan Radio and NPR podcast Believed. The series was widely ranked among the best of the year, drawing millions of downloads and numerous awards. She and co-host Lindsey Smith received the prestigious Livingston Award for Young Journalists. Judges described their work as "a haunting and multifaceted account of U.S.A. Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar’s belated arrest and an intimate look at how an army of women – a detective, a prosecutor and survivors – brought down the serial sex offender."