Legislation Introduced Reforming Petition Circulation

Liz Gullett

Nov 03, 2017

This week, a seven-bill package was introduced by members of the House Democratic caucus reforming petition circulation in Michigan. According to the bill sponsors, the legislation was introduced in response to complaints across the state that a number of petition groups are using varying degrees of dishonesty when attempting to gather signatures.

The legislation as introduced would:

Authorize a voter who has signed an initiative, referendum, or recall petition to remove their name by filing a written request with county elections officials prior to the day of filing
Prohibit the hiring of a signature gatherer already convicted of crimes related to election or petition fraud and forgery
Prohibit paying circulators by the signature
Hold the organization a petition circulator works for liable if the circulator makes a false or misrepresentative statement concerning the petition
Require circulators to wear a badge disclosing if they are paid or volunteering
Require entities paying petition circulators to register with the state and keep a log of all paid petition circulators
Allow only the first petition signature to be counted if someone signs the same petition more than once

The bill package was referred to the House Elections and Ethics Committee for consideration.

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