Proposal to require proof of citizenship to register to vote advances
Read the full article on The Detroit News website here.
By Craig Mauger - April 18, 2025
Lansing — A campaign that wants Michigan voters to prove they are U.S. citizens says it will soon begin collecting petition signatures after a state board approved on Friday a summary of the proposal to be used on petition forms.
The Board of State Canvassers has the job of approving objective summaries of ballot proposals in Michigan. After about four hours of debate and deliberation, the bipartisan panel voted in support of a 96-word description of the constitutional amendment being pursued by the Committee to Protect Voters' Rights.
The proposed amendment, which was the subject of a war of words on Friday, would require those registering to vote in Michigan to provide a birth certificate, passport or some other document to verify their citizenship and to show a photo ID before voting.
Usually, the canvassing board's approval of a ballot proposal summary launches an organization's push to collect petition signatures across Michigan. Inside the Binsfeld Office Building in downtown Lansing, Fred Wszolek, spokesman for the Committee to Protect Voters Rights, said petition gathering efforts will begin "soon."
"I'm in favor of waiting until it's sunny out every day," Wszolek joked of Michigan's weather.
In order to qualify for the November 2026 ballot, Wszolek's group will need to collect roughly 440,000 signatures within a window of 180 days.
Michigan's voting laws have been under a bright spotlight since the 2020 presidential election which Republican Donald Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump maintained false claims that widespread voting fraud had caused his defeat.
Four years later, in 2024, Trump won the presidential election in Michigan. But election officials revealed in the fall that a University of Michigan student from China who wasn't a U.S. citizen allegedly voted illegally and his ballot had counted.
Then, earlier this month, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's office said it had conducted a months-long review and identified 15 additional individuals who allegedly weren't U.S. citizens but still cast ballots in the November presidential election.
State Rep. Bryan Posthumus, R-Rockford, has championed the new ballot proposal effort to require voters provide proof of citizenship.
“This is a no-brainer. Only U.S. citizens should vote in our elections," Posthumus said in a past statement. "And people should have to show ID when voting to prove that they are who they say they are. That’s just common sense."
However, opponents of the measure have said it will cause some U.S. citizens who simply can't locate required documents, like a birth certificate, to miss out on their right to vote.
"This proposal contains 'solutions' in search of problems," wrote Mark Brewer, a lawyer and former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, in testimony submitted to the canvassing board.
"Far from protecting voters' rights, the CPVR proposal will disenfranchise millions of Michigan voters, including millions of married women who changed their names, the elderly and rural voters," Brewer added.
Brewer is working for an opposition group called Promote the Vote Action.
While the Friday meeting wasn't supposed to be focused on whether canvassers agreed with the proposal or not in drafting a summary of it, there was significant debate.
Mary Ellen Gurewitz, a Democratic canvasser said, she was concerned about married women who had changed their last name from what it was on their birth certificate.
"You think it's OK to burden the right to vote?" Gurewitz asked Charlie Spies, the lawyer representing the Committee to Protect Voters' Rights.
Spies said it was a "little offensive" to suggest women wouldn't be able to verify their citizenship.
"For every type of verification, they have to go through that issue," Spies said. "This is not a unique issue."
If someone simply can't find their birth certificate but wants to vote, Wszolek said they can get a new birth certificate.
On what would happen if someone showed up to register to vote right before Election Day but realized they had lost their birth certificate, Wszolek acknowledged, "You waited till the last last minute. Now, it's going to be hard."
"We're not going to leave the door open for foreign nationals to vote, because somebody can come up with a hypothetical," he added.
The debate over the proposal will likely play out over the next 18 months as supporters attempt to gather signatures and make the case for why voters should back their amendment in November 2026.
Still, the proposal itself would mark a significant shift in the fight over Michigan voting laws. In both 2018 and 2022, Michigan voters approved constitutional amendments to expand voting rights.
In 2018, voters approved no-reason absentee voting. And in 2022, they approved providing nine days of early voting and allowing use of a photo ID or merely a signed affidavit to verify a voter identity.
