Legislator has taken lead on needed election reforms

The Michigan Senate today approved legislation from state Rep. Matt Hall to ensure the state’s voter list is up to date and accurate – continuing his efforts to restore faith in Michigan’s elections process going forward.

House Bill 4127 establishes a procedure to remove individuals listed on the qualified voter file with unknown dates of birth. The plan also requires verification of a person’s birth date to update records.

Hall led a House Oversight Committee hearing during the 2019-20 legislative term where the state Auditor General disclosed that hundreds of people on Michigan’s voter rolls are over 120 years old according to their birth dates listed – older than the oldest-living person in the world. In addition, it was estimated that 300,000 people on the rolls were inactive voters who haven’t voted in over 20 years.

Other plans Hall developed through his work on the House Oversight Committee that were approved by the Senate today include procedures to remove dead and ineligible voters from the state’s qualified voter file if records are not updated by electors. The bills do not remove voters immediately, providing grace periods and ample time to sort through situations as they arise.

“These bills were introduced in response to that report. People want to have secure voter lists that are accurate. That gives them confidence the system is working,” said Hall, of Marshall. “They don’t want dead people or people who are listed as being 120 years old or people who have moved away years ago on voter rolls. I have received calls from people who had absentee voter ballot applications sent to their house and the person on the letter did not live there – and that’s because we have voter lists that aren’t accurate and need to be shored up.”

“We saw millions of unsolicited absentee voter ballot applications mailed out to people throughout the state – and people understandably have concerns if the state has information that hasn’t been updated and ballot applications are going out in broad fashion. It can lead to fraud. This plan cleans up our records and provides needed clarity to our state’s elections process.”

A recent report from the non-partisan, independent state Auditor General illuminated additional problems with voter rolls. The findings showed 2,775 total votes cast by electors who died prior to election day for eight elections spanning from May 7, 2019 to the most recent general election in November 2020. Over 99 percent of that total voted absentee and 41 of these voters died 41 days or more before an election.

Hall noted that expanded methods for voting registration has put more emphasis on accurate voter rolls than ever before – and that robust upkeep will lead to restored confidence.

“I called for reforms to make sure our voter files are accurate and up-to-date before this most recent audit occurred – and we now see an even more urgent need to get this fixed,” Hall said. “I’m now calling on Gov. Whitmer to sign these bills. This should not be political. We have looked at what other states do and what federal law outlines and found this is a reasonable way to address these issues and restore confidence in our elections process.”