Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Michigan House passes bills to aid voters
By Emily Barton
Michigan Daily (U. Michigan)
07/30/2007

(U-WIRE) ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The State House of Representatives approved two bills on July 25 that would allow Michigan residents to have a voter registration address separate from their permanent address. This change would give students the opportunity to register to vote in the city where they attend college without changing their driver's license address.

The bills are sponsored by State Rep. Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor), and went before the Ethics and Elections Committee in May.

The first bill allows for the change of a voter registration address without changing a driver's license address. It passed in the House 58-50.

The second separates voter registration addresses from a driver's license addresses and passed in the House 57-51.

State Rep. Edward Gaffney (R-Grosse Pointe) was the only Republican to vote in favor of the bills. State Rep. Bettie Cook Scott (D-Detroit) voted in favor of the first bill but against the second.

If passed by the State Senate, the bills would repeal Public Act 118, known as Rogers's Law, which was passed in 1999 and requires voters to register to vote with their permanent addresses.

Warren said the next step in the process is to work with both Democrats and Republicans to have the bills heard in the Senate as soon as possible.

She said she hopes to work in a bipartisan fashion to emphasize the importance of voting for all citizens.

"It's so important to engage young voters as soon as we can," she said.

Opponents of Warren's bills are worried that if the bills become law, implementing a new system involving records of two addresses for one citizen would be costly and disorderly, and could increase the chance of voter fraud.

While past attempts to pass similar bills ultimately failed, Warren said she is confident that by gathering input on how to implement the legislation from state legislators of both parties the bills stand a better chance to pass in the Senate.

Washtenaw County Clerk Larry Kestenbaum said he thinks the long-term trend of students not registering to vote has little to do with Rogers's Law and more to do with an overall decline in students' political involvement.

But he said Rogers's Law does sometimes create confusion for potential voters who think changing their permanent address is complicated or could jeopardize their dependency status, causing them to lose their parents' health care coverage.

Kestenbaum said the implementation of the bills wouldn't be a major problem among clerks.

"We could certainly make that work," he said.

But there is still concern among supporters that the bills will face more of a challenge when they go before the Republican majority in the Senate.

LSA junior Chris Irvine, chair of the College Republicans, said he doesn't think personal political views should affect the decision to make the voting process easier, and that Warren's bills would be an improvement for student voters.

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