Insider Intelligence

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and the League of Women Voters have reached an agreement regarding the league’s claims challenging the constitutionality of the 2011 redistricting of Michigan’s state legislative and Congressional districts. As part of the agreement, the league agreed to drop all claims challenging the constitutionality of the Senate and Congressional districts. The […]

The Michigan Secretary of State’s office announced they will begin to issue optional REAL ID-compliant licenses and ID cards.  The new cards comply with a federal mandate, and thus can be used to board flights and enter federal facilities.  In order to obtain a compliant card, resident will bring a certified birth certificate or another […]

This week, Secretary of State Ruth Johnson announced Sally Williams as the next director of the Michigan Bureau of Elections.  She currently serves as the bureau’s Election Liaison Division director, assisting county and local clerks in their election administration duties.  Prior to that, Ms. Williams served in the executive offices of Secretaries Candice Miller and […]

This week, State Elections Director Christopher Thomas announced that he will retire in June.  In 1981, then-Secretary of State Richard Austin (D), appointed Mr. Thomas as the state’s elections director, a position he has held since the initial appointment.  He began his career in elections administration in 1974 by working for the United States House […]

This week, The Pew Center called Michigan’s elections system a “high performer” based on multiple objective measures of election performance, according to a press release from Secretary of State Ruth Johnson.  The study calculated and averaged a state’s overall performance by measuring more than a dozen separate indicators that make up the overall score.  Indicators […]