Not every attempt by Republicans to secure elections in Michigan is a back door to voter suppression. Yet that’s the response Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is taking in vetoing common-sense voting reforms.

The governor’s latest action on Friday nixed two bills that would require the secretary of state to ensure voting rolls reflect active voters. Reports in recent years have shed light on how thousands of people who are long dead or have moved out of state remain in the qualified voter file.

This should be a no-brainer fix regardless of political party. But everything to do with voting has become hyper partisan following the 2020 election.

At a time when voter confidence is already at a low, such squabbles risk fueling further doubts about whether our elections are trustworthy.

The bills Whitmer killed would have required actions related to registered voters who have either an unknown date of birth or haven’t voted in more than 20 years. A Senate fiscal analysis estimates there are more than 304,000 voters who haven’t voted since 2000, and 600 voters with unknown birthdays, which could open the door to fraud or other errors.

Whitmer claims in her veto letter that the legislation did “not advance the goal of improving Michigan elections.” She also said the measures would “burden” local clerks and cost taxpayers. Yet estimates from the Senate Fiscal Agency put the cost at $100,000 — hardly an imposition now that the state has billions in surplus tax revenue and federal COVID dollars.

Whitmer didn’t seem to have a problem with the burden or cost when Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson broke longstanding precedent in 2020 and unilaterally decided to mail absentee ballot applications to Michigan’s more than 7 million registered voters. The price tag for that was $4.5 million, and federal COVID dollars paid for it.

Similarly, Whitmer killed four bills last fall that would have included expanding the number of polling locations and requiring new training for poll challengers — measures that many Democrats supported.

Rep. Matt Hall, R-Marshall, sponsored one of the recently vetoed bills and says the legislation was in the works prior to the 2020 presidential election and was in response to a 2019 auditor general report that highlighted concerns with the voter file.

“Rather than work with the Legislature to address an obvious concern, the governor has inexplicably decided to leave the door open to potential problems with the state’s official voter list,” Hall said in a statement. “Her position just doesn’t make sense.”

Benson has said she’s a proponent of cleaning up the voter rolls, but argued the GOP bills would make things too onerous for individuals to stay on the rolls. That’s not true.

Democrats contend they are on the side of making it easier to vote — and harder to cheat. They missed a chance to prove the latter.

— Detroit News