Budget talks advance, GOP election bills tweaked: The week in Michigan politics
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LANSING, MI - This week in Lansing was more about molding legislation than passing bills, at least on major topics.
Both chambers made moves to further clarify key initiatives, with budget talks picking up in the House and Senate and amendments made to Senate Republican election bills.
The House continued to tackle ethics reform, while Republicans in both chambers moved to allow high schools to hold in-person commencements. Here’s what happened this week at the Michigan Capitol:
Budget talks evolve
Quarterly budgets for many state agencies, staffing cuts and additional limits on how state agencies can respond to the COVID-19 pandemic all remain on the table as Michigan lawmakers move forward with setting the state’s annual budget.
Michigan Republicans leading with less controversial bits of voting package
Updated 12:56 PM;
Today 12:56 PM
Genesee Township election workers count absentee ballots on election day Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020 in Genesee Township. (Jake May | MLive.com)Jake May | Mlive.com
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LANSING, MI - One month ago, Michigan Senate Republicans debuted their plan to overhaul the state’s election laws.
The ensuing weeks brought criticism, protests and press conferences from Democratic officials and liberal activists calling the package everything from “racist” to “voter suppression.” Much of the pushback focused on one portion of the package that would tighten control and adds steps to the absentee ballot process.
GOP lawmakers say their election bills will make it easier to vote. A fact check Clara Hendrickson, Detroit Free Press Get to TCF - How Detroit was the game-changer of the presidential election
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The claim: Michigan election bills are “designed to make it easier for people to vote”
Republicans in Michigan’s Senate recently unveiled a massive package of proposals to change election laws that they say will improve voting security and integrity, and boost voters’ confidence in the election process.
They’ve also pitched their reforms as expanding voting access.
“This package is designed to make it easier for people to vote and ensure our elections are conducted fairly and honestly,” state Sen. Michael MacDonald, R-Macomb Township, said in a statement, echoing similarclaims from other Republican lawmakers.
The claim: Michigan election bills are “designed to make it easier for people to vote”
Republicans in Michigan’s Senate recently unveiled a massive package of proposals to change election laws that they say will improve voting security and integrity, and boost voters’ confidence in the election process.
They’ve also pitched their reforms as expanding voting access.
“This package is designed to make it easier for people to vote and ensure our elections are conducted fairly and honestly,” state Sen. Michael MacDonald, R-Macomb Township, said in a statement, echoing similarclaims from other Republican lawmakers.
Voting rights advocates and election officials from both parties disagree. They point to bills that would impose stricter voter ID requirements including a new one for absentee voters, shorten the deadline for returning absentee ballots via drop boxes, prohibit clerks from paying for postage on absentee ballot return envelopes, and restrict the secre
Mar 10, 2021
Expediency should never get in the way of justice. Yet that was the justification Attorney General Dana NesselÃs office offered in explaining why it chose the archaic one-man jury to bring charges against former Gov. Rick Snyder and eight members of his administration.
Nessel and Special Prosecutor Kym Worthy took the evidence against the nine officials indicted in the Flint Water crisis to a one-man grand jury a Genesee County judge and presented it in secret proceedings with no defense attorneys present.
That allowed the prosecution to avoid laying out its case in an open court before trial, which is the typical process, and it denied the defendants the opportunity to challenge the evidence before heading to trial.