The four qualifications to vote in Michigan’s elections are to be over the age of 18, a U.S. citizen, a Michigan resident for at least 30 days, and “not currently serving a jail or prison sentence.”
Roughly 32,000 Michiganders fit only three of the four qualifications, so naturally, Democrats saw that as an opportunity to increase voter rolls. With the passage of Proposal 3 in 2018, Michigan slowly transitioned our voter rolls to automatic voter registration.
Anyone with a valid driver’s license or ID is added to our voter rolls unless they opt out. Why not get prisoners licensed before their release so they can head straight to the polls?
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson—who is also running for governor—and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel have held a series of Expungement Fairs and Road to Restoration Clinics since Michigan’s expanded expungement laws went into effect in 2021, and many have been held inside prisons.
Why would licensing prisoners be a priority?
Jocelyn Benson confirmed her true intent in restoring driver’s licenses for felons in the 2020 “Returning Citizens Initiative” memo where she states the importance of making sure prisoners leave with their “vital documents” and be registered to vote unless they choose not to be.
The “returning citizens” can be issued a temporary permit for 30 days upon release, until they take a driver’s test. But this was never about safety—it’s about voter rolls.
Since 2022, clinic events have taken place at Jackson’s Parnall Correctional Facility, the Huron Valley Correctional Facility, Central Michigan Correctional Facility, a cannabis company, courthouses, farmers markets, colleges, and even a casino.
The Michigan Department of Corrections, Michigan Department of State, the Michigan Attorney General, DTE, and a variety of soft-on-crime social justice NGOs partnered to put on the clinics. They include:
- Safe and Just Michigan, currently advocating to end cash bail, which would free thousands of violent criminals while their cases move through the legal system
- Nation Outside, which says its mission is to “transform” the criminal justice system by “centering lived experience as expertise” relying on its “Trauma-Informed Peer-Led Reentry” program
- The Detroit Justice Center, which advocates for “divesting” from police and elimination of cash bail, while partnering with the pro-BLM National Lawyers Guild on ending mass incarceration
You don’t currently need proof of citizenship or a license to vote in Michigan. If someone doesn’t have their identification on election day, they simply sign an affidavit stating they are who they say they are, which is how at least 16 noncitizens voted in Michigan’s 2024 election.
Michigan’s automatic voter registration, triggered by receiving new IDs and driver’s licenses, quietly adds people leaving prison to the voter rolls and keeps many there for years. Is the real motive behind Democrats’ early release push to turn fewer inmates into more votes, even if it puts public safety at risk?
Benson once again confirmed her true goal in a September press release: “One of our most overlooked and underserved communities includes Michigan’s returning citizens and eligible voters who are currently in jail.”
Her office said nearly 20,000 “returning citizens” have now received a voter ID or driver’s license through her partnership with the Department of Corrections.
Almost 20,000 “returning citizens” means 20,000 new names on Michigan voter rolls.
Anna Hoffman is a hockey mom of three living in Ann Arbor. Follow her on X @shoesonplease.
