Waterford Today

LANSING, Mich. — Sen. Ruth Johnson, who served as Michigan’s secretary of state from 2011 to 2018, on Tuesday strongly opposed Senate passage of purported “voting rights” bills that would reduce voter privacy and place new burdens on local elections officials.

“These bills would cost taxpayers millions of dollars and create new obstacles for our clerks and local units of government that are simply unnecessary,” said Johnson, R-Holly. “These bills go far beyond the voting rights protections already afforded to all of our citizens under both the U.S. and Michigan constitutions, and they would create a huge new bureaucracy under the secretary of state that would help interest groups sue our local units of government and our hardworking clerks.

“Alarmingly, these measures would also set a dangerous precedent — and eviscerate long-standing norms about the sanctity of polling places — by allowing individuals who are not voters to actually enter polling locations and interact with voters waiting in line.”

Johnson offered an amendment to Senate Bill 404 that would have prohibited a candidate in a jurisdiction on which they appear on the ballot or their immediate family members from entering a polling location to distribute food or beverage to voters. The amendment would also have banned any individual entering a polling location to distribute food or beverages from discussing the election or referencing any candidates or ballot questions.

“Under this bill, I could enter a polling location — even if I was a candidate on the ballot — and say ‘Hi, I’m Ruth Johnson, please accept this snack while you’re waiting in line to vote’ or have a volunteer for my campaign enter a precinct and say, ‘Please accept this hot dog or cup of coffee from Ruth Johnson,’” Johnson said. “I strongly believe the vast majority of people would say that this type of activity is inappropriate and a violation of the spirit of the current ban on campaigning inside polling locations.”

Johnson also sponsored an amendment to SB 404 to strike the word “inside” to limit the distribution of food or beverages by candidates or campaigns to voters outside of a voting location.

“The voting process is a private opportunity for citizens to express their preferences, without undue influence or distraction,” Johnson said. “Once voters are already inside a polling location, there is no good justification to say that allowing food and beverage distribution during the voters’ brief visit would outweigh the privacy rights of voters and the absence of any activity that might seek to influence the voters.”

Both of Johnson’s amendments were defeated and SBs 401-404 were passed along party lines.