Michigan Election Reform Alliance

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Next MERA Council Meeting

When: Sunday, January 18, 2009, Noon - 3 p.m.
Where: Phone conference only

The public is cordially invited to attend.
Please contact shepard@acd.net
for more information.

Mission

The Michigan Election Reform Alliance (MERA) is a nonprofit, non-partisan, pro-democracy, grassroots organization dedicated to the realization of election processes that consistently uphold the principles of democracy to ensure the confidence of voters and maximize representation of all citizens of the United States of America. More

Voter Resources

Information on registering to vote, student voting, for poll workers and challengers, Michigan Secretary of State, candidate's positions, your current Michigan representatives, election results, and more.

Contribute

Please make payments payable to
"Michigan Election Reform Alliance.Org"
and mail to:

MERA
P.O. Box 981246
Ypsilanti, MI 48198-1246

or pay online at:

All contributions are dedicated to MERA's election reform projects.

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Post-Election Audits in Michigan

November, 2008 MERA's proposed legislation for Post-Election Audits in Michigan will begin its trek through the legislature this Fall.

Why Audit?

At present there is rarely if ever any check on the accuracy of Michigan elections. Candidates are often loath to request recounts, even in very close elections, for fear of being labeled "sore losers" or "sour grapes." The Board of State Canvassers, under the leadership of Chris Thomas, head of Secretary of State Land's Bureau of Elections, has even asserted a dubious authority to reject legal recount petitions, at its sole discretion. ( Minutes of the Board of State Canvassers, 11/27/06, p. 2). The paper ballots that are the official record are typically processed once electronically during voting on election day and then locked away. They can be consulted again only if a court so orders or a recount petition is approved.

No election system is perfect, but electronic vote counting, as it is currently practiced, is particularly risky. The machines have significantly high failure rates. Oakland Co. Clerk, Ruth Johnson detailed machine failures there in 2006 and again in 2008. The machines are also riddled with security vulnerabilities that could be used to alter an election outcome. See, for example, MERA's photographic documentary of how to bypass the seal on a Diebold tabulator. The 2004 U.S. presidential election is known to have been altered, in part by manipulating the electronic vote count.

How then can Michigan voters know whether the electronic vote count is accurate? How can we know the declared winner of an election contest actually won? As long as we continue to rely on electronic vote counting on election night, the only way to know is to audit the vote count after the election!

Read how! (summary)

Mass Purge Planned for Michigan Registered Voters.

Since July of 2007 a MERA committee has been investigating activity of the Bureau of Elections aimed at removing registered voters from the Qualified Voter File (QVF - the state's electronic list of registered voters).

The planned purge started in July 2006 with a mass mailing of postcards, presented as "educational," to millions of registered voters in Michigan. When cards were returned undelivered by the post office, a process ensued that led to hundreds of thousands of registration records being placed on "cancellation countdown."

The voters placed on cancellation countdown will automatically lose their voter registration and all their records will be removed from the electronic database, if they do not vote in either of the next two federal elections (2006, 2008) and do not re-register.

MERA's investigation has sought to determine the exact process used and has raised many questions about its legal basis both in federal and state law.

With the investigation now nearly complete, MERA has asked to present its findings at a hearing of the Oversight and Investigations Committee of the Michigan House of Representatives.

Legislative Update - Spring 2008

March 18. MERA testified on an early voting bill, HB 4090. The House committee expects to amend the bill before voting it up or down.

February, 2008. MERA supported two bills before the House Committee on Ethics and Elections - HB 4774 and HB 5739. The bills would allow any Michigan clerk to register or confirm voter identity in person for any MI jurisdiction. Both bills subsequently passed the House.
More.

Michigan Dems Back MERA Legislative Plan

Sat. Feb. 24, 2007. At the Michigan Democratic Party's state convention Saturday, delegates resoundingly passed an election reform resolution based on legislative proposals developed by the Michigan Election Reform Alliance (MERA). Drafted by Mary Shindell of Scio Township, the resolution was also endorsed two weeks earlier at the county convention of the Washtenaw party committee.

The resolution embraces these key elements of the MERA plan:

Amend the Michigan Constitution to guarantee a right to vote.
Ensure voting machine security.
Require hand count audits.
Mandate full recounts by hand of any race or ballot issue if the margin of victory is 2% or less.
Mandate new elections for any race or issue if mistakes or fraud have corrupted the election process beyond the possibility of an accurate and conclusive recount.
Allow anyone to vote absentee with no reason necessary.
Allow election day registration.

The entire MERA Legislative Plan is now available to the public here. Volunteers who would like to help get the plan passed into law please contact your MERA County Coordinator or a MERA Statewide Coordinator.