Thread by @BarbByrum

Hi @pjcolbeck and group of legislators I’ll call the #MisinformationCaucus of the @MIGOP!👋Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum here. I took a moment to read your letter and have some thoughts: 🧵👇

https://twitter.com/pjcolbeck/status/1580554205911085057

First and foremost, I applaud the idea of trying to stop the airing of advertisements that are misleading around our democratic process. I am surprised that you didn’t object, like I did, when @kevinrinke aired his “zombie voter” ad.

However, your letter contains more misinformation than any ad about Proposal 2 that I have seen, so let’s break it down:

Proposal 22-2 does add voter ID provisions to the Constitution, the same voter ID provisions that we have in state statute currently, that enjoy a wildly high approval rating (as your letter later points out).

It is current state law that voters must show ID or attest on an affidavit under penalty of perjury that they are who they say they are. These are being enshrined in the constitution because of the many attempts the Republican-led legislature has made to remove the option.

Requiring a physical state ID is burdensome to those communities who are not able to afford it or those who otherwise would not need it, who must still enjoy the inalienable right to vote.

Requiring ID with no alternative is a de facto poll tax, and will disenfranchise voters from exercising their right to vote.

You suggest that this proposal will allow ballots to be sent en masse. Again, this is not true. Ballot Applications can be mailed with state-provided postage.

Existing signature verification practices would still be required when those ballot applications are returned before any ballot is sent to a voter.

You also state that ballot boxes are unsafe, which is simply not true. Voters have been voting by mail since the civil war, and we have trusted the blue post office “ballot boxes.” The ballot boxes in use today are even safer than those.

You also fail to mention other provisions included in this proposal, like enshrining post-election audits into the constitution, providing 9 days of early voting, and enabling our military voters to cast their ballots and ensure their votes are counted, when they arrive.

So if you are looking at getting rid of election misinformation, I would start with putting this letter in the recycling bin and emptying it.