Update, September 2024: The MI VRA has passed the Senate! Take action and write to your Michigan State Representative today:
While Michigan has made great progress in protecting voting rights in recent years, the Federal Voting Rights Act has been attacked and weakened in the courts. By passing the Michigan Voting Rights Act (MI VRA, SB 401-404), the state will fully protect our constitutional right to vote.
The Michigan Voting Rights Act Would:
- Provide new legal tools to fight discriminatory voting rules in court, but also mandate pre-court negotiations to attempt to reach a resolution without expensive litigation.
- Require places where a court has found voting discrimination to prove that subsequent voting changes will not harm protected voters before they can go into effect.
- Provide for curbside voting for voters who need assistance.
- Create a system for disabled voters to have an election monitor if local governments violate policy.
- Ensure advanced public notice of key voting changes.
- Protect voters who have limited English proficiency by providing criteria for local governments to provide translated elections-related material.
- Update the threshold for any local government with 600 or more individuals who speak 1 language other than English and are limited English proficient; the federal VRA threshold is 10,000 individuals
- Create a data institute by establishing a partnership between a public research institution and the state to collect, research, and publish voter-related data to the public.
Ask Your MI Lawmakers To Support The MI VRA!