We’ve made historic strides this term to protect the rights of Michiganders to cast their ballot freely and fairly and ensure their vote is counted. We can and will meet the moment again. The protections in the Michigan Voting Rights Act—to prevent voter suppression at the local level, to break down barriers due to language or mobility, and to create a voting data institute to help researchers further improve voting access—will confront the dangerous rhetoric and actions from Washington claiming that our votes and voices don’t matter. Our Senate majority is stepping up to ensure voters can participate in our elections without discrimination, intimidation, or any undue burden, and I urge a “yes” vote on the package.
Senator Camilleri’s statement is as follows:
Mr. President, in 1964, a Detroiter named Viola Liuzzo was murdered by the KKK for driving voting rights volunteers in Selma. That same year, a woman named Rosie Head was chased away from a local clerk’s office by police dogs simply because she had the audacity to try to register to vote. These are just two stories of the hundreds of cases of discrimination that people here in this country faced attempting to exercise their right to vote. We like to talk about these stories as distant history. We treat the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 like a finished chapter—something permanent, sacred, immovable—but the legal reality we face today is stark. The national safety net has been completely shredded.
On April 29 of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Louisiana v. Callais . In a devastating 6-to-3 ruling, the Court effectively eviscerated section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act, stripping away the primary legal tool that voters of color have relied on for six decades to challenge discriminatory maps and voting laws. As Justice Kagan wrote in her dissent, this represents the “majority’s [now-]completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act.” Many states have already moved to redraw districts previously mandated by the federal VRA, and more plan to do so in the near future. We planned these bills last term, fearing that this day would come. In the wake of Callais , these bills are now an absolute priority that all state legislatures across the nation should be moving to adopt in some form.
Michigan has the most decentralized election system in the country, administered by 1,699 county and local clerks. While that decentralization can be a strength, it also makes our state a prime target for antidemocratic elements looking to exploit our well-meaning local officials, sometimes also to suppress votes, and even weaponize election administration for partisan gain in what we all know is a key national electoral battleground. We cannot wait for a divided Congress or a hostile Supreme Court to save us. Like we did after the Dobbs decision in 2022, Michigan must step up and fill the void.
Senate Bill Nos. 961 through 964 are our state-level insurance policy for our democracy. This package will ban voter intimidation and suppression, expand language access for Arabic and Spanish speakers in communities like Canton and Coldwater, empower voters with disabilities with clear remedies to challenge inaccessible voting spaces, require local governments to provide notice before making key structural changes to voting infrastructure, and create a nonpartisan voter institute to ensure our state’s election data is driven by facts, not by conspiracy theories.
In recent years, Michigan has caught the eye of the nation by leading on nonpartisan redistricting and reproductive freedom. Today we have the obligation to lead again. The Supreme Court has done its damage. The federal government will not act. Today in Michigan we can, and today, Michigan, we must. I urge my colleagues to stand up for every Michigander’s right to vote and please vote “yes” on the Michigan Voting Rights Act.
The following bill was read a third time:
Senate Bill No. 962, entitled
A bill to create a voting and elections database and institute; to provide for the powers and duties of certain state and local governmental officers and entities; and to provide remedies.
The question being on the passage of the bill,
The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: