A Huge Signature Drive Hits a Bureaucratic Wall
Americans for Citizen Voting-Michigan turned in 709,841 signatures for a proposed state constitutional amendment that would require proof of U.S. citizenship and photo ID to vote. That total was more than 263,000 signatures above the 446,198 needed to qualify. But the Michigan Bureau of Elections, which operates under Democrat Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson, is now recommending that the petition be declared insufficient. For voters who believe election rules should be clear, secure, and decided at the ballot box, this is exactly the kind of government paperwork drama that makes people reach for the aspirin.
The Fight Comes Down to a Tiny Sample
The Bureau’s recommendation is based on a statistical review of only 1,000 randomly selected signatures out of the more than 709,000 submitted. According to the Bureau’s 13-page staff report, election workers first found 692 of those 1,000 sampled signatures valid, which would have been enough for certification. Then attorney Robert LaBrant and Promote the Vote Action challenged 377 signatures in the sample. Since 217 of those had already been rejected, the challenge targeted 160 signatures that staff had first counted as valid. After that review, the accepted number dropped from 692 to 607. The campaign tried to restore 149 signatures, but Bureau staff reinstated only five, bringing the final count to 612. The campaign needed 629, leaving it 17 valid sample signatures short.
Projection, Not a Full Count, Drives the Recommendation
Based on that 1,000-signature sample, the Bureau estimated the petition had 434,423 valid signatures statewide, which is 11,775 below the required 446,198. That means officials did not individually rule that the full petition drive lacked enough valid signatures. Instead, they projected the result across the whole submission using a sample that represented roughly 0.14% of the signatures turned in. The disputed signatures involved issues such as city or township mismatches, date problems, illegibility, or circulator information. Yes, rules matter. But when more than 700,000 people sign on to get a voting question before the public, killing it over a tiny slice of the stack is going to raise eyebrows, and plenty of them.
The Campaign Says Voters Deserve a Say
Kurt O’Keefe, the initiative’s treasurer, said the petitions were submitted more than four months before the deadline, yet the campaign is being told at the last minute that they should not be certified. He said the group spent months reviewing petitions, removing duplicates, and tossing signatures it believed might not comply with Michigan law. Americans for Citizen Voting-Michigan spokeswoman Kristin Combs said the fight continues and that more than 700,000 Michiganders who signed the petition deserve a vote. The proposed amendment would require citizenship documents such as a passport or birth certificate, require photo ID or a provisional ballot with follow-up documentation, create a statewide citizenship verification program, and direct removal of noncitizens from the Qualified Voter File after notice and a response window. It also included a state-funded hardship program for people who cannot afford documents.
The Board of State Canvassers Gets the Next Call
The petition has not been formally rejected yet. Michigan’s four-member Board of State Canvassers, made up of two Republicans and two Democrats, is scheduled to make the final decision on August 24. The dispute comes while Michigan’s election system is already under scrutiny over claims involving noncitizens registering or voting. Democrat Attorney General Dana Nessel recently charged five noncitizens accused of illegally registering or voting in the 2024 election, and a sixth defendant, a U.S. citizen, was charged with allegedly registering her noncitizen husband. Against that backdrop, a citizen-led effort to require proof of citizenship and photo ID is not some fringe idea. It is the kind of basic election safeguard many Americans assumed was already common sense.
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