The group Americans for Citizen Voting (ACV) took its concerns about the state ballot initiation approval process to the state House Monday.
The is the second time the Select House Committee has met and the first time it heard testimony.
Chairman of the ACV ballot campaign, Paul Jacob, offered his concerns about transparency within the process.
“We did not know when we would get the staff report,” Jacob said. “We didn't know other things because there's no set timetable.”
Jacob testified that ACV turned in its signatures ahead of the April deadline, but did not receive a staff report detailing the validity of signatures until August 17.
Jacob is advocating for more transparency and regulations.
“Having more clear rules and deadlines and more time would help,” Jacob said.
The Americans for Citizen Voting campaign turned in over 700,000 signatures, but a 1,000-vote sample determined not enough would be valid to qualify the measure for the ballot according to the Michigan Bureau of Elections (BOE).
In Michigan, you need more than 440,000 valid signatures to make it onto the ballot.
Michigan Department of State spokesperson Angela Benander SAID state laws were followed.
“The BOE’s timeline is driven by the statutory and constitutional deadlines for the Board of State Canvassers to review petitions,” Benander said.
In a March 2026 meeting of the Board of State Canvassers, BOE Director Jonathan Brater warned that certification of petitions like ACV’s would have to wait.
“In general, we process the candidate petitions first, then the initiated law petitions, then the constitutional amendment petitions so that we can handle this very labor-intensive and time-consuming process to make sure that we are doing it carefully,” Brater said.
The ACV campaign sought to create a Michigan constitutional amendment requiring citizenship verification for all voters in the state.
The move is the latest push by conservatives to curb what they describe as widespread voter fraud.
There have been infrequent cases of non-citizens voting, according to the Secretary of State’s Office – including 15 instances out of 5.7 million ballots cast in 2024.
Democrats have been critical of the added identification burden the ACV amendment would place on voters, calling it “voter suppression.”
The select committee’s existence is due to House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township). He has claimed – without evidence – that the Department of State under Benson has intentionally affected ballot measures backed by conservatives.
“Whenever a Republican-affiliated group submits something on the ballot, it takes months and months and months to review it, and then they always figure out a way to disqualify it,” said Hall.
“If it’s a Democrat group, they review it much quicker, and they always find a way to approve it, even if it’s suspect.”
The Michiganders for Money Out of Politics ballot campaign was approved by the State Bureau of Elections as well as the Board of State Canvassers.
Select Committee Chair Rep. Mike Harris (R-Waterford Township) opened last week’s hearing by saying the body is only looking at ways to improve the process.
”We are not here to decide whether we agree with the proposed amendment. We are not here to relitigate a political campaign, and we are not beginning this investigation with a conclusion about whether anyone did anything wrong,” Harris said.
For Jacob and the people backing Americans for Citizen Voting, streamlining the process is very important.
“It's the whole attitude about whether government is really there to facilitate democracy or to stand in the way,” Jacob said.
