On September 15, the Michigan Senate passed SB 584. It deals with the presidential primary. It retains the February 28, 2012 primary date. But it provides that voters who wish to vote in a presidential primary must fill out a form, indicating which party’s presidential primary ballot they wish. For absentee voters, the absentee voter application would include this same form, asking the absentee voter which primary the voters wishes. Michigan doesn’t have registration by party, and the bill does not change that aspect of Michigan elections.
The bill also provides that the list of which voters chose which party’s primary ballot will be made public no later than 71 days after the presidential primary, but the public record will be withdrawn from public scrutiny, and destroyed, two years later.
Existing law prints all Michigan presidential primary ballots on a single sheet of paper, and in the privacy of the voting booth, the voter chooses one party’s primary. Only large qualified parties in Michigan have their own presidential primary. The smaller qualified parties do not participate in the presidential primaries. Thanks to Frontloading HQ for this news.
This is a huge mistake. The Republican Party has a majority in both houses, as well as the Governorship. Why anyone in their position, possessing even minimal intelligence, would not opt for registration by party with a cutoff date well before the Primary is baffling to me. The Democrats prefer to pre-select candidates, avoiding primary challenges. This lunacy leaves the process open to crossover contamination. Unbelievable !!
One more party hack regime setting up PURGE lists of party hack voters.
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Abolish the timebomb Electoral College.
P.R. and App.V.
To me, the bill appears to be at least partly aimed at overturning _Green Party of Michigan v Land_, which invalidated the Big Two’s previous attempt to gain party-affiliation information from Presidential primary ballots. Then, they wanted to keep it for themselves; this time, apparently, they’ll let consultants pay for the data too — and presume that the smaller parties won’t have the funds to buy it.
Can anyone else here see another legitimate purpose or need, within Michigan’s election system as it stands (or totters), for the collection of this information?