Michigan Gov Signs Controversial Bill Limiting Ballot Recounts for Fraud Allegations

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has signed a controversial bill which severely limits election recounts and removes the ability to investigate election fraud from the Board of State Canvassers.

[RELATED: Key Swing State Georgia Implements New Election Security Measures…]

“Today, with the signing of our common-sense recount law reforms, we are strengthening our democracy and ensuring that we reach the most accurate count of the ballots possible during a recount process,” said state Senator Stephanie Chang (D-D3)

The new bill removes the ability of canvassers to conduct their own investigations into election fraud, instead requiring them to pass the allegations to other authorities, such as the Attorney General (AG), currently Democrat Dana Nessel

If, during a standard recount, canvassers discover fraud, they must now report it to the higher authority, who will then conduct an investigation.

The new law effectively centralizes control over election integrity reviews and recounts into the hands of Michigan’s popularly elected AGs. It further requires that a member of the political party who might be adversely impacted by a given recount must consent to the referring the recount to the AG.

“The board of state canvassers shall refer a matter for investigation to the attorney general as provided under subsection (1) only if at least 1 member of each political party appointed to the board of state canvassers concurs in the decision to refer the matter for investigation,” says the law.

That provision means that if a Republican canvasser discovers evidence of fraud favoring a Democratic candidate, a Democratic canvasser can simply refuse to agree to refer the matter to the AG, and it will not be investigated.

Although Gov. Whitmer, whose name has appeared in discussions of a possible replacement for President Joe Biden, has claimed that the bill will increase election security, it has the potential to allow fraud allegations to go unresolved in a key swing state, possibly influencing the outcome of the presidential election.

The bill also restricts the conditions under which a candidate can request a recount.

Under the new law, a recount can only be requested if the number of disputed votes could alter the outcome of the election if all of them were assigned to the other candidate.

For example, if a candidate has a 2,000 vote lead, his opponent cannot request a recount if there are only 500 disputed votes, because, even if the initial count was incorrect, those votes would not change the election’s outcome.

Recounts can only be requested by candidates if there is a discrepancy between the number of ballots collected and ballots issued.

Michigan’s new law comes as President Biden has vowed to veto a federal bill which would require people to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections.

As Democrats at the federal and state levels have worked to oppose election security measures, Republican led states such as Georgia and Idaho have implemented stricter election security measures.

In Georgia, ballots will now be hand-counted after being counted by voting machines to ensure that the number counted by the machine matches the number of ballots actually inserted into it.

Election officials will also be required to ensure that the number of votes counted matches the number of voters recorded as having voted.

[RELATED: Idaho Governor Signs Executive Order to ‘scrub’ Voter Rolls of Noncitizens…]

Earlier this week, Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) signed an executive order demanding that non-citizens be purged from voter rolls, and prohibiting state institutions from giving voter registration material to non-citizens.