Supreme Court weighs fate of blocked Michigan citizenship voting proposal

A group seeking to require Michigan voters prove their citizenship is asking the US Supreme court for state ballot access
Late last month, the Board of State Canvassers deadlocked on whether to certify the petition for the Nov. 3 ballot
With the state Supreme Court yet to weigh in, the group says time is of the essence. Opponents say it could set a bad precedent

LANSING — The fate of a proposal that would require Michigan voters to prove their citizenship status before casting a ballot hangs in the balance with just days to spare before the statewide ballot is finalized.

Organizers are asking the US Supreme Court to order the measure onto the ballot — by Thursday — after it was blocked last week in a deadlock vote by the Board of State Canvassers.

The Michigan Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on a similar appeal, prompting some opponents of the proposed constitutional amendment to argue against intervention by the nation’s highest court.

Supporters, however, say time is of the essence as the state is poised to finalize the Nov. 3 ballot on Friday.

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At issue is a petition from a group called Americans for Citizen Voting, which in March submitted more than 709,000 signatures for a potential proposal requiring both new and existing voters to confirm their citizenship status before voting in future elections.

The group needed 446,198 voter signatures to make the ballot, but the Michigan Bureau of Elections determined many signatures that the group submitted were invalid, and Democrats on the bipartisan Board of State Canvassers voted against certification.

That prompted several legal actions by Americans for Citizen Voting, including a Monday application to US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh asking for an emergency injunction requiring the state “to take all steps necessary to place” the measure “on the ballot without delay.”

“By refusing to timely act, the Michigan Supreme Court has allowed the board’s decision to reject voters’ free-speech rights,” the group wrote in its Monday filing.

On Tuesday, Kavanaugh gave the Michigan Board of State Canvassers, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Elections Director Jonathan Brater until noon Wednesday to respond to the emergency request. They did, with Attorney General Dana Nessel serving as their legal representation.

In a 39-page response, Nessel argued the request for an emergency injunction was “highly unusual.”

“This application does little to justify such an unusual request, other than to repeat the number of signatures they gathered — without acknowledging or contending with the high number of signatures that were found to be invalid,” Nessel wrote, later arguing the request “should be denied.”

Americans for Citizen Voting is still seeking relief from the Michigan Supreme Court, but it’s not clear if the state’s highest court will decide the matter before Friday’s ballot deadline.

Spokesperson John Nevin told Bridge Michigan via email he had little to say publicly “other than that the Americans for Citizen Voting application is pending before the court.”

GOP investigates

The Board of State Canvassers on Aug. 24 deadlocked 2-2 over whether Americans for Citizen Voting had gathered enough valid signatures to make the ballot. Both Republicans voted for certification but both Democrats voted against it, effectively blocking it.

The move followed a Bureau of Elections report that recommended canvassers deny ballot access, citing its review of a random sample of 1,000 signatures that found only 612 were valid.

Later, Americans for Citizen Voting was able to use voter affidavits and other arguments to convince canvassers that at least 626 of the signatures were valid – still shy of the 629 needed to confirm a sufficient number for certification based on the sample.

The ballot group took its fight to the Michigan Supreme Court. When the state court didn’t immediately respond, it turned to the US Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, House Republicans formed a select committee to investigate the petition review process. House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, argued state officials were too often “one-sided” when it came to which petitions were quickly reviewed and certified for the ballot.

“Whenever a Republican-affiliated group submits something on the ballot, it takes months and months and months to review it, and then they always figure out a way to disqualify it,” Hall said without offering evidence to back up the claim.

The new select committee is made up of seven members, five Republicans and two Democrats. State Rep. Mike Harris, R-Waterford, will chair the panel, with Hall saying the majority of committee members were chosen due to their past work related to elections or oversight and investigations.

The review comes as Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson runs for governor, and state election officials were quick to push back.

The Michigan Bureau of Elections “fulfills its nonpartisan administrative and advisory role to the Board of State Canvassers in accordance with Michigan law,” said Angela Benander, a spokesperson for Benson and the Department of State.

Both the Bureau of Elections and Board of State Canvassers “have been operating under these same signature sampling laws and procedures since at least the 1970s,” Benander added, saying that if lawmakers unsatisfied with the “current longstanding process have the power to propose bills to change the law.”

Former Michigan Elections Director Chris Thomas — who served in the role for roughly four decades before Brater — also questioned the need for the select committee.

While it’s possible the Legislature finds ways to improve the sampling process, reviewing every signature submitted would require significant time, money and staffing by the state, Thomas told Bridge Michigan.

“It’s very Trumpy, to be blunt,” he said. “It didn’t work out your way, so it must be the system – not the way the petition was circulated, not the quality control that was apparently lacking in the petition circulation and vetting process. It’s always ‘blame the system’.”

What the petition does

If the proposed amendment does ultimately make the ballot, Michiganders would be weighing in on one of the strictest proof-of-citizenship requirements in the U.S.

New voters would have to prove their citizenship when registering – a requirement currently in place in four states – but also require existing voters to prove their citizenship if the state can’t independently verify it.

Being a US citizen is already a state and federal requirement to vote in US elections, and noncitizen voting in Michigan elections remains incredibly rare. The state last month charged 5 noncitizens for allegedly voting in 2024.

The amendment would also remove the option for voters without a valid photo ID to instead sign an affidavit verifying their identity under the penalty of perjury.

Instead, the measure would task lawmakers with figuring out a way to provide low-income Michiganders access to citizenship-proving documents at “no cost.”

Someone voting without verified citizenship would have to vote using a provisional ballot. They would then have six days following the election to show their documents to election administrators or else their vote would not be counted.