HOUSE DEMOCRATS FORCE LAWMAKERS TO VOTE ON BILL INSPIRED BY ERRONEOUS BLOG POST

House Republicans on Wednesday attempted to improve a hastily written Democrat bill based on a now-discredited liberal blog article, but House leadership ignored any efforts at genuine election reform, Rep. Arlan Meekhof announced today.

Democrat Rep. Robert Dean introduced House Bill 6477 after a report on a liberal Web site implied that Republicans may challenge the voting rights of people who live in foreclosed homes. Contents of the article have since been discredited, and the site has issued a correction.

"At a time when almost one of 10 people in Michigan are out of work, House Democrats have again decided to put partisan politics above the people's interests," said Meekhof of Olive Township. "If we are to believe everything we read on the Internet, our e-mails would now be taxed, some guy in Nigeria would still be short of cash, and Bigfoot's body would be on display at the Smithsonian."

The bill supposedly protects the voting rights of Michigan residents who live in foreclosed homes, but current state law already provides blanket protection for all residents living in a voting precinct.

Although the bill only reiterated current state law, Republicans took it as an opportunity to enact real reform for Michigan voters.

Meekhof introduced an amendment to tie-bar HB 6477 to Senate Bill 1488, which increases campaign financing transparency by stipulating more stringent campaign statement filing deadlines.

GOP lawmakers also tried to amend the legislation to guarantee that military service members would get their votes counted and make it illegal to use information on someone's foreclosure status for political gain.
The amendments were quickly denied by the Democrat majority.

"Any attempt to deny law-abiding American citizens the fundamental right to vote is inherently wrong," Meekhof said. "HB 6477 is a blatant attempt to make political hay out of a non-issue, while ignoring proposals that would make a real difference.
"Democrats have wasted the time of the Michigan House and, more importantly, haven't gotten us closer to finding solutions to our state's legitimate challenges, such as creating jobs and lowering people's cost of living."

HB 6477 is now before the Senate for consideration.
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