Insider Intelligence

This week, the State Administrative Board approved 10-year contracts with three vendors, including MLC client Hart InterCivic, for optical-scan voting systems that read and tabulate paper ballots marked by voters.  Each of the state’s eighty-three county clerks will now select one of the three approved vendors to upgrade their county’s voting system.  Local clerks have […]

Michigan Democratic Party (MDP) chair, Brandon Dillon, announced that he will seek reelection to the top position at the party’s February 11 Spring State Convention in Detroit.  Mr. Dillon became chair of the party in July 2015, after the resignation of the prior chairman to run for Congress. Prior to serving as the MDP chair, […]

This week, former Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer filed paperwork to run in the Democratic Gubernatorial primary race in 2018.  By filing to run, this will allow her to set up a campaign committee, which she can use to fundraise and spend money.  There have been a few additional names floated as potential candidates in […]

This week, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith issued an order dissolving the temporary restraining order he issued on Monday, thus ending the state’s recount of the presidential election results.  Following Monday’s initial order, several counties in Michigan began the process of recount ballots.  However, on Tuesday the Michigan Court of Appeals ordered the recount […]

This week, the House passed legislation requiring photo identification when casting a ballot.  Under the legislation as passed, if a voter does not have photo ID when attempting to vote, they will be given a provisional ballot.  Within ten days they must go to their local clerk’s office to show their identification.  Along with the […]

This week, the House Elections Committee reported a bill requiring that the full cost of a vote recount be covered by the individual requesting the recount.  Under the legislation as reported by the committee, a candidate requesting a statewide recount for an election that resulted in more than a 5% difference between the winning candidate […]

On Thursday, the House Elections Committee reported legislation making changes to the state’s voter laws.  Under the legislation, a voter must show photo identification when voting.  If they don’t have the identification whilst casting their ballot, they would be given a provisional ballot and must go to their local clerk within ten days to show […]

This week, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein filed a request for a recount of the results of the 2016 presidential election in Michigan.  On her website, Ms. Stein states the recount is needed to verify the results of the machine-counted vote totals in the state.  According to a press release from Secretary of State […]