Michigan Legislature Roll Call

LANSING - The legislature is out and not scheduled to meet before July 22. Rather than votes, this Roll Call Report describes some recent election-related bills of interest. Senate Bill 759: Count prisoners address as where they lived before imprisonment Introduced by Sen. Sylvia Santana (D), to require the Department of Corrections to report the address of prisoners as the one where they lived before going to prison. This would affect political redistricting population counts. Referred to committee, no further action at this time. Senate Bill 909: End going to the polls, do elections by mail Introduced by Sen. Jeff Irwin (D), to end the institution of going to polls and voting on election day, and replace it with mail-in elections at all levels. Referred to committee, no further action at this time. House Bill 5451: Make election days a holiday Introduced by Rep. Vanessa Guerra (D), to make the regular May, August and November election dates official state holidays. This would likely result in most state and local government employees getting the day off. Referred to committee, no further action at this time. House Bill 5545: Remove party labels in county elections Introduced by Rep. Ryan Berman (R), to make elections for county commissioner and most other county offices "non-partisan," meaning voters would only see the names of candidates on their ballots, with no indication of the political leanings of candidates like those currently provided by party identifications. Referred to committee, no further action at this time. House Bill 5789: Allow different driver license/state ID and voter registration addresses Introduced by Rep. Rebekah Warren (D) to allow a person to have a different address on their driver license or state identification card than the one at which they are registered to vote. Among other things this would let resident college students to vote where their school is located, not at their actual home address. It would affect political redistricting population counts. Referred to committee, no further action at this time. Senate Joint Resolution O: Permit legislature to meet remotely during declared emergency Introduced by Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D), to place before voters in the next general election a constitutional amendment establishing that if an official state of emergency is declared by the governor due to a public health crisis or an extreme weather situation, the legislature and legislative committees may hold meetings electronically or over the phone. These hearings and sessions would have to be accessible to the public. Referred to committee, no further action at this time. Senate Joint Resolution P: Extend legislator term limits Introduced by Sen. Adam Hollier (D), to place before voters in the next general election a constitutional amendment to extend legislative term limits. Under Michigan's current term limits, representatives may only get three terms of two-years each, and senators may only get two terms of four-years each. The measure would extend this to 24 years combined in the House and Senate. Term limits were adopted by a 59-41 percent vote of the people in 1992; since 2001 legislators have proposed more than 20 initiatives to repeal them or extend their length. This is the third such proposal introduced in 2019-20 legislature. House Joint Resolution R: Let some 17 year olds vote in primary election Introduced by Rep. Rebekah Warren (D), to place before voters in the next general election a constitutional amendment to allow 17 year olds vote in August primary elections if they will be 18 for the November general election. Referred to committee, no further action at this time. SOURCE: MichiganVotes.org, a free, non-partisan website created by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, providing concise, non-partisan, plain-English descriptions of every bill and vote in the Michigan House and Senate. Please visit MichiganVotes.org.

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