Michigan legislature debating voter ID bill

Michigan legislators are debating whether to require voters to show identification at the polls, part of a three-bill package of election reforms the Republican-led body will take up in a lame-duck session.

{mosads}The proposal, sponsored by state Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons (R), would tighten requirements on voters who do not present their identifications at the polls. Currently, voters without identification may sign an affidavit swearing to their identity, under penalty of perjury.

The new bill would allow voters without an identification to obtain a provisional ballot, though they would have to present proof of their identity, and their address, at the county clerk’s office within 10 days of an election.

Lyons’s measure would require those who cannot afford an identification card to sign an affidavit at the clerk’s office swearing they were unable to obtain an identification, or a copy of their birth certificate, without paying a fee. It also exempts those who have a religious objection to being photographed for the purposes of receiving an identification.

Democrats and civil liberty groups testified at the bill’s first hearing on Tuesday that the measure was aimed at keeping some voters — notably those who were most likely to back Democratic candidates — from casting their ballots.

Adding the new requirements would make Michigan’s voter identification rules among the strictest in the nation. Michigan would join Wisconsin, Kansas, Indiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia and Virginia as the only states that require voters to both sign an affidavit at the polls and then take the second step of proving their identity later.

Thirty-four states, including Michigan, request or require voters to show identification at the polls, though several states are engaged in lawsuits with civil rights groups and the federal government challenging their rules.

Election officials in Michigan are beginning a recount of this year’s presidential contest this week. The state said earlier this week that President-elect Donald Trump had defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, claiming the state’s 16 electoral votes, by a margin of just under 11,000 votes out of nearly 5 million cast.

“As we’ve experienced in several elections here in Michigan, every vote counts,” Lyons told the Detroit News.

Michigan legislators have until December 15 to pass final bills before adjourning for the year.