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Chiming in as a public official:
Michigan’s election reform bills are a minefield. Stepping back from the fact that they’re not *all* terrible, largely promoting the big lie, and absolutely and completely unnecessary, let’s talk about disparate treatment and disparate impact.
Michigan’s election reform bills are a minefield. Stepping back from the fact that they’re not *all* terrible, largely promoting the big lie, and absolutely and completely unnecessary, let’s talk about disparate treatment and disparate impact.
Disparate treatment is straight up discrimination - for example, you have to be white to work at a specific retailer, or a man to be certified as a mechanic, or your hair can’t be an afro or dreadlocked. Blatantly, objectively discriminatory.
Disparate impact is sneaky because it looks neutral but, in practice, is discriminatory. Like having to reside in the same city for the last five years to qualify for a job. Sounds neutral, but it hurts college students, the impoverished, and communities of color in urban areas.
I won’t bore you with examples, but you get the picture. In Michigan, many of the election bills will disparately impact communities of color. For example, being required to provide ID to vote sounds neutral, until you consider 13% of the Black community nationally lacks an ID.
Ballot drop boxes have to be monitored in HD? Sounds okay, until you realize the cost of that in urban settings compared to rural (white!) areas with one dropbox. Are you going to ask Detroit to choose where to put them? How does that affect people without transportation?
No more prepaid postage, or outside aid? At first glance it’s alright, until you realize the former’s basically a poll tax, and the latter disparately impacts municipalities who need funding, which are largely - you guessed it! - diverse and impoverished.
So, on the main: the bills that expand voting - dope. Let’s do it. The rest that restrict voting or the process, while not explicitly discriminatory (disparate treatment), very much end up being that way (disparate impact). Hard pass.
And let’s go a step further and acknowledge *where* these restrictions will be most detrimental: urban areas in Southeast Michigan/Wayne County that are predominantly Black. The worst bills are Diet Racism, which accomplish the goals but still lets people pretend they’re neutral.
And if you disagree with this thread, that’s fine. We can all agree that voter fraud is bad and should be addressed. But people confuse the process (like counting ballots in Detroit, which is time-consuming and messy) with fraud (filling out someone else’s ballot, etc.)
The most comprehensive audit in our state’s history (thanks @JocelynBenson!) found no widespread voter fraud.
There was one - one! - voter fraud charge and conviction in 2020, when the absentee ballot signature verification process *worked* without requiring ID.
There was one - one! - voter fraud charge and conviction in 2020, when the absentee ballot signature verification process *worked* without requiring ID.
So I ask: What, then, are we solving for? And can we live with the consequences of the “solution?”
If you can’t win - improve your message. Don’t attack the process, and don’t try to disenfranchise your opponents.
If you can’t win - improve your message. Don’t attack the process, and don’t try to disenfranchise your opponents.
Obligatory “I’m speaking only in my capacity as a public official.” Very proud to represent an extraordinarily diverse community, and while our voter turnout rate is Not Great, there’s no reason to make it worse.
