Michigan bill does not prohibit recounts due to allegations of voter fraud

CLAIM: A bill signed by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer this week prohibits the recount of votes based on allegations of voter fraud.

AP’S RATING: Wrong. The calculation, SB603does not prohibit such recounts, according to two state senators who helped revise recount laws. It specifies that candidates can request a recount if they “believe in good faith” that they would have had a “reasonable chance” of winning the election had there not been an “error” in the vote count. This means that the number of votes the requesting candidate wants recounted must be greater than the difference in votes between them and the winning candidate.

THE FACTS: After Whitmer, a Democrat, signed the law On Monday, social media users made false statements about what this would mean for the possibility of a recount.

“Holy crap! Michigan Governor Whitmer has signed legislation banning recounts based on election fraud allegations,” reads one X-post that had received about 43,000 likes and 23,500 shares as of Friday. “Democrats will stop at nothing to prevent election fraud from being exposed!”

But recounts can still be initiated by allegations of fraud, according to the initiators of SB 603. They say the bill was written to facilitate a comprehensive recount when there are reasonable grounds to believe it could change the election outcome and to prevent frivolous recounts. It also clarifies how suspected voter fraud should be investigated.

“The whole fraud thing is frankly based on a lot of misinterpretations, some of which I believe are probably intentional misinterpretations,” said Democratic Senator Stephanie Chang, the bill’s lead sponsor.

State Senator Jeremy Moss, the lead sponsor of the companion bill SB 604, said SB 603 does the opposite of what is being spread online.

“The law is being modernized so that all ballots can be recounted,” said the Democrat, who chairs the Michigan Senate Elections and Ethics Committee. “This will strengthen the integrity of the election results. And it will allow more, if not all, ballots in a given election to be recounted.”

SB 603 states A candidate must be able to “substantiate to the best of his knowledge and belief that, but for errors in the counting or return of votes, he would have had a reasonable chance of winning the election.” It goes on to say that “the number of votes for which a recount is requested must be at least greater than the difference in votes between the requesting candidate and the winning candidate.”

Similar guidelines for voting questions are set out in the bill.

The allegations that the bill does not allow for recounts due to voter fraud are based in part on a change in the wording of SB 603, which replaces the words “Fraud or error” with “error.” Chang and Moss explained that fraud falls under the heading of error and that the wording was shortened in part because there were candidates who were hesitant to request a recount when there was no risk of fraud.

However, critics point out that this change could harm a fair electoral process.

“They are ultimately working to dispel the notion that fraud could be a reason for a discrepancy,” said Republican Rep. Jay DeBoyer, who sits on the House Elections Committee. he wrote in a press release in May about SB 603 and SB 604. “This is a highly reactive policy that ignores transparency and does not produce a better electoral system.”

Republican Representative Jaime Greene said in a statement in June that “watering down the protections is counterproductive when several warning signs have emerged throughout the state’s electoral process.”

There have been cases where precincts could not be recounted if they were “not balanced,” meaning the number of people registered to vote did not match the number of ballots cast. For example, in a recount of a close election for Detroit city clerk in 2017, votes from 33 precincts with more than 7,000 votes could not be recounted, according to the local News Reports From that time on.

One example of why a precinct might be unbalanced is if a voter registers to vote but then decides not to vote and throws away their ballot or leaves it at the precinct. SB 603 is designed to ensure that more precincts are eligible for recounts when necessary so that all valid ballots can be accounted for. The bill also adds or lowers thresholds for automatic recounts.

“It will take into account whether there is a reasonable explanation for why the balance is not right in a constituency,” Moss said.

In addition, SB 603 clarifies the limits of a recount and stipulates that an election committee, whose tasks include The government that conducts recounts does not have jurisdiction to investigate voter fraud. It states that a recount is “an administrative process limited to determining the number of votes on the ballots for each candidate seeking a particular office or the number of votes for or against a ballot question” and not “an investigation or review of the conduct of an election.” Possible voter fraud should be reported to local prosecutors or the state’s attorney general, according to the law.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson issued a press release in May, it reminded electoral commissions that the state’s constitution and electoral law do not authorize them to conduct investigations. It explains that the laws “define the obligation of electoral commissions as a ‘ministerial, clerical and non-discretionary’ duty to certify electoral results based solely on the electoral results.”

Whitmer signed SB 603 into force on Monday. It will take effect on the 91st day after the final adjournment of the regular session of the Michigan Legislature in 2024, which is currently scheduled to end In December.
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This is part of AP’s efforts to combat widespread false and misleading information circulating on the Internet. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.