The legislature is out and not scheduled to meet before July 22. Rather than votes, this Roll Call Report describes some recent election-related bills of interest.

Note: The next Weekly Roll Call Report will appear on July 24.

Senate Bill 759: Count prisoners address as where they lived before imprisonment

Introduced by Sen. Sylvia Santana (D), to require the Department of Corrections to report the address of prisoners as the one where they lived before going to prison. This would affect political redistricting population counts. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.

Senate Bill 909: End going to the polls, do elections by mail

Introduced by Sen. Jeff Irwin (D), to end the institution of going to polls and voting on election day, and replace it with mail-in elections at all levels. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.

House Bill 5451: Make election days a holiday

Introduced by Rep. Vanessa Guerra (D), to make the regular May, August and November election dates official state holidays. This would likely result in most state and local government employees getting the day off. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.

House Bill 5545: Remove party labels in county elections

Introduced by Rep. Ryan Berman (R), to make elections for county commissioner and most other county offices “non-partisan,” meaning voters would only see the names of candidates on their ballots, with no indication of the political leanings of candidates like those currently provided by party identifications. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.

House Bill 5789: Allow different driver license/state ID and voter registration addresses

Introduced by Rep. Rebekah Warren (D) to allow a person to have a different address on their driver license or state identification card than the one at which they are registered to vote. Among other things this would let resident college students to vote where their school is located, not at their actual home address. It would affect political redistricting population counts. Referred to committee, no further action at this time.

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Source: MichiganVotes.org, a free, non-partisan website created by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, providing concise, non-partisan, plain-English descriptions of every bill and vote in the Michigan House and Senate. Please visit www.MichiganVotes.org.