LANSING (AP) - Michigan's August primary date would be moved six weeks earlier, to June, and the state would be required to more quickly check if ballot drives have submitted enough qualifying signatures for the general election under bills approved Tuesday in the House.
The Republican-led chamber also passed legislation that would make county clerks directly update the voter file to account for deaths and do more frequent checks for dead people as an election nears.
Michigan has three regular election dates: in May, August - when the primary is held - and November. The House voted 63-46, with many Democrats and some Republicans in opposition, to consolidate the May and August elections into one on the third Tuesday in June, starting next year.
The concept has some bipartisan support, including from Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. But she recently said the change should not take effect until 2024 due to an expected delay in the once-a-decade redrawing of congressional and legislative districts.
"There's no, in my view, reason or need to change the date of the August 2022 primary, and certainly there's no benefit at this point to moving it up ... because of all of the other moving pieces with redistricting and the delivering of census data," she said earlier this month.
School officials oppose having fewer elections at which they can ask voters to approve tax and bond proposals.
The legislation was sent to the GOP-controlled Senate, as was a measure that would require the state elections bureau to review and complete its review of ballot initiative signatures within 90 days of them being filed. Currently the Board of State Canvassers, which certifies proposals for the ballot after hearing from the bureau, must decide at least 100 days before the election.
Unlock Michigan, a group trying to repeal a law Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used to issue COVID-19 orders, has complained that the bureau took too long to canvass its signatures. State officials have said they were tied up preparing for last year's presidential election and doing postelection audits, and the deadline is not until 2022. The review was completed last week, more than six months after the petitions were turned in.
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