LANSING - State Sen. Dianne Byrum will visit MSU’s campus next week to discuss concerns voters faced in last year’s troubled election.
The Onondaga Democrat serves as chairwoman on the 19-person Michigan Task Force on Voting Reform. The group will meet Thursday in the Union Ballroom. The stop is part of an eight-city statewide tour.
“(The) task force is bipartisan and has a great depth of experience,” Byrum said. “(It is) well representative of the state with people who bring a broad view of election process.”
The committee will submit a recommendation to the Legislature in the fall. Byrum said she hopes the tour will allow local municipalities, like East Lansing, to express concerns.
“Whatever we recommend in terms of legislative changes has to work at a local level,” she said.
In November’s election, East Lansing voters faced long lines at on-campus polling sites, and some were turned away from polls because their names were not listed as registered voters.
Experts say Byrum, who lost the 8th Congressional District race by 160 votes to current U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, after a recount, needed the support of the predominately Democratic city.
Bryum said open access to absentee ballots was a resolution that was popular at the Task Force’s meeting last week in Detroit - currently, state laws require that absentee voters have a reason such as being disabled, on vacation or in jail.
“It helps reduce the lines and waiting time at polling places on election day,” Byrum said. “If people want to vote by absentee ballot, they can vote that way for whatever reason they want.”
Byrum said the task force also wants to improve the registration process, voter education and training for those who work the polls.
ASMSU External Vice Chairman Shane Waller is a member of the task force.
“Hopefully, they feel I am a good gauge of the student population as a whole,” the political economy senior said. “There are some clear-cut things that could be done both at local polls and at a statewide level that would make voting easier for students.”
Waller said broader access to absentee ballots and streamlining the registration process would alleviate problems students face. He said ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government, saw the problems firsthand when it tried to register voters last year.
“You try to inform students but there are so many ifs,” he said. “It turns off students to the whole process.”
Waller and the other task force members will review the East Lansing Elections Task Force’s report on the city’s voting system by Deputy City Manger Jean Golden.
“We hope to head off the difficulty that we experienced on Election Day (last fall),” Golden said. “We need to have consistent policy and procedures of voter regulation and education across the state.”
