LANSING – Hard-knuckle politics has once again thwarted efforts to allow voters to cast an in-person absentee ballot despite a request from Governor Rick Snyder in January that it be sent to his desk as soon as possible.
The bill (HB 4724) would end the limit on casting an absentee ballot to those 60 and older, with a physical disability requiring assistance at the polls, who be absent from home on Election Day and with a few other specific circumstances. Instead, those not meeting the criteria could vote absentee as long as they did so in person under the bill.
The move is a slap in the face for Snyder by his own political party. Last year, when Snyder signed a bill repealing the option for voters to vote for a political party’s entire slate of candidates through a single selection on the ballot, he issued an unusual signing statement in which he urged the Senate to pass HB 4724 and “send it to me as soon as possible to be signed into law. This will not only provide greater access to the polls, it will also help alleviate long lines at the ballot box.”
Initially, the two bills, straight ticket voting repeal and no-reason absentee voting, were formally linked with a tie-bar so that neither could become law unless both became law. But the Senate, whose Republican leadership opposed no-reason absentee voting, broke the tie-bar, and Snyder did not insist upon the tie-bar.
That prompted criticism of Snyder that he had forfeited his leverage. He could have refused to sign the bill (SB 13) ending the straight ticket voting option without also having the no-reason absentee bill also sent to him, but did not. Instead, he decided to rely on the Legislature to act. Now it appears it will not, at least not before the November presidential election, when the biggest voter turnout occurs.
Snyder Communications Director Ari Adler said Snyder still wants the bill to move, “but he respects the separation of powers that allows the Legislature to determine the timing of items on the overall agenda.”
Sen. Wayne Schmidt (R-Traverse City), a supporter of no-reason absentee voting, said the decision had been made to hold off on action until at least the post-election lame-duck session. Schmidt said there was not a definitive plan to take up the bill then, but the consensus among leadership and the caucus was to wait.
“Rather than try to rush something, mess up plans, things like that, talking with leader Meekhof, we decided, ‘Okay, let’s get through the election and let’s go from there,'” he said. “I think we’ll have strong support for no-reason absentee voting after the election.”
A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive) said he had no timetable on the bill. Amber McCann, Meekhof’s spokesperson, also said the issue was “largely off our radar in terms of a policy issue right now.”
Schmidt agreed there is no firm plan to act on a bill after the election.
“It makes sense, not that it’s an official timetable, but after the election, beginning of 2017, makes sense to begin introducing something then,” he said. “We decided let’s hold off, let’s get all our ducks in a row and run it cleanly that way.”
Sen. Steve Bieda (D-Warren), a strong supporter of no-reason absentee voting, said he doubted the Republicans would act at all, even in lame duck. One Senate Republican source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they too would question the chances of the bill coming up at all this year.
“They want to do everything they can to suppress the vote and make it difficult for people to vote,” Bieda said. “I think I would have probably a better chance of winning a multistate lottery than seeing Republicans make voting easier for people.”
Bieda said the concern about longer lines, as people who would have voted straight ticket potentially moved through the entire partisan section of the ballot to cast their votes, is real.
He said Snyder erred in signing the straight ticket voting repeal without having the no-reason absentee voting bill on his desk as well.
“Certainly to count on any type of positive pro-voter initiative out of this Legislature was really day-dreaming,” he said. “He really should have vetoed that until they brought him, by his own words, something he wanted to see.”
Schmidt said many Senate Republicans have been working on the issue. They want voters to be able to vote absentee without having to come up with a “lame excuse.” There is no way to enforce the requirement that a person be away from home to use an absentee ballot if they do not meet any of the other criteria.
“I don’t think people should have to lie,” he said.
McCann said no decision has been made to take up the bill before or after the election.
“I don’t think there’s any timeline that we have to take up no-reason absentee voting,” she said.
The Senate Republican Caucus has mixed feelings on the issue, McCann said. And so far, Meekhof has followed a model of moving on an issue once at least half the caucus is willing to move forward, she said.
No one in the caucus has asked Meekhof to move the bill, McCann said.
Asked about Snyder’s request from January, McCann said, “He respects the governor’s position, but it’s not necessarily the governor that he’s looking for direction from.”
This story was published in Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on www.gongwer.com
