News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Alpena Clerk Anna Soik pulls voting data from a large storage unit at city hall. A pair of proposed bills in Lansing could make it more difficult for some people to vote, but also easier for clerks to verify people who don’t have identification or vote through the mail.

ALPENA — A pair of bills that would require people to take more stringent steps in order to vote is awaiting approval in the Michigan Senate.

If passed, as expected, they would then move to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s desk. Whitmer is expected to veto the proposed laws.

The bills would be more strict on voter ID requirements, signature recognition, mail-in absentee voting procedures, and likely increase the number of provisional ballots issued. More provisional ballots will likely be filled out by voters who don’t have identification, or able to provide they are registered to vote.

A provisional ballot, also called an affidavit ballot, is given to a voter when a question arises about that person’s eligibility and counted after identity is confirmed.

Besides the ID requirements, municipalities would no longer be able to mail out applications for absentee ballots to voters, unless they are requested. When returned, they must include a copy of an ID, or other forms of identification.

Some municipalities in Northeast Michigan have absentee voter lists, and people who ask to be on the list are automatically mailed an application. If the proposed law is passed, voters would have to request an application before each election and townships, cities, and counties are no longer to mail them out en masse.

Alpena Township Clerk Michele Palevich said the use of the permanent absent voting list has more people vote, because of its simplicity. She said if the bill ends up being law, it will make it harder for some to vote, and add more work to her office because more people would have to pick up ballots in person, and added identification measures will add time to an already cramped election process.

“A very small percentage of the people who vote in the township don’t have some type of ID,” Palevich said. “This will cause more people to wait in line and add more work. We have to remember voting is a right and if we can’t, and shouldn’t, make it more difficult to vote.”

Alpena Clerk Anna Soik said during the 2020 presidential election there was a sharp increase in people who were asked to fill out provisional ballots. She said most of them were in Precinct No. 1, which had 42 provisional ballots filled out. Combined, there were 50 provisional ballots submitted. Soik believes not all of them were for people who didn’t have identification and there may have been some confusion at the polling place for Precinct No 1., which pushed the total up. Overall, Soik said, some new regulations are needed, especially in terms of identifying who is requesting and returning absentee ballots. She added that voting laws can’t go too far however, because that could impact the ability of some people to fill out a ballot.

“I think having that many provisional ballots was really a one-off and there may have been someone a little confused,” Soik said. “Still, I think it would be a good thing just for verifying voter identity. It seems like anyone could align your application to vote. There is a person telling you how they are, but how do you prove it is them? We really don’t have a way to do that.”

Soik said signatures on ballots are crossed checked with signatures on file, and in the past, her office has caught signatures that were not from the people who submitted a ballot.

“There was one time, we got two ballots and it was clear the same person signed both of them,” she said. “It was a husband and a wife and one filled out both. We called them and they had to come in and take care of it.”

The Senate is expected to act on the two bills soon. If Whitmer vetoes the bills, it doesn’t appear there is enough votes in the house and senate to override it.