Posted on Wed, Oct 12, 2011 : 5:38 p.m.
Secretary of State urges tougher campaign finance laws, help in removing invalid voters from rolls
By AnnArbor.com Staff
Secretary of State Ruth Johnson is pushing for tougher campaign finance laws and federal help to purge election rolls of dead voters and otherwise invalid names, the Grand Rapids Press reported.
Johnson today unveiled the "Secure and Fair Elections Initiative." Lawmakers from both the state House and Senate sponsor bills in the package, which is meant to make state elections more secure.
Among the initiatives Johnson would like to see are new laws for stealth efforts and the creation of an election crimes unit, the Press reported.
Comments
John Q
Thu, Oct 13, 2011 : 3:12 a.m.
This is a joke. Johnson's pushing more laws that purport to make elections "more secure" but do nothing more than make a lot of noise while doing nothing to ensure election integrity. Where are the laws to prevent another massive election fraud as was perpetrated by Meijer and associates in the Traverse City area. After being turned down for a new Meijer store, Meijer funded an attempt to recall the locally elected board using phony campaign groups with piles of corporate cash. After being sued and forced to pay out millions to the officials they attacked, Meijer got off with a slap on the wrist from the state's Republican Secretary of State. That's the real threat to democracy in Michigan, not Johnson's bogus scare tactics about dead voters.
Roadman
Thu, Oct 13, 2011 : 4:10 p.m.
A responsible Attorney General would have aggressively pursued both Fieger and Meijer Corp. Cox let politics prevail over justice.
The Picker
Thu, Oct 13, 2011 : 11:46 a.m.
Don't forget Geoffry Feiger!
Roadman
Thu, Oct 13, 2011 : 3:27 a.m.
The William Boltres case. The town treasurer in his 70s who had two heart attacks after Meijer tried to recall him and later sued him. He countersued and a mediation panel recommended a $3million-dollar award. Not only Meijer but also the Dickinson Wright law firm had some campaign finance issues arising out of this case. The Michigan GOP and Meijer have a tight relationship and Terri Land and Mike Cox engineered a "slap on the wrist" for Meijer in the campaign finance investigation.
Veracity
Thu, Oct 13, 2011 : 1:44 a.m.
Roadman: Which City Council members were involved in these nefarious and possibly illegal, activities? Whose government offices were wrongly registered as campaign contact information? Can you provide copies of the impugned communications? What are your sources for this information? You should want to expose these criminals so that they will receive proper punishment. Or are you just reporting unsubstantiated rumors circulating among disgruntled Republicans? Middle school-type gossip should not be used to discredit elected officials!
Roadman
Thu, Oct 13, 2011 : 2:16 a.m.
Two of the five circuit court judges had registered their county building telephone, fax, and/or court addresses as campaign committee contact information. One has since dissolved the relevant campaign committee. Check the Bureau of Elections campaign finance database of the Secretary of State section of the <a href="http://www.michigan.gov" rel='nofollow'>www.michigan.gov</a> website by running through the five names of the circuit judges in this county and you shall see which two circuit judges did so. One of these circuit judges had his county building fax machine initially registered as the campaign committee fax machine for a District Court candidate in the 2008 election, but a Secretary of State filing later amended this to remove that fax number as a campaign committee contact. As to the City Council members in question, one was mentioned in E-mailgate and was defeated for re-election in 2009, he served as campaign manager for a local judicial candidiate and when Freedom of Information Act requests by Noah Hall were responded to it was discovered he had walking maps for going door-to-door for that campaign and was also admitting in e-mails to playing on Facebook for a half-hour.
Roadman
Wed, Oct 12, 2011 : 10:26 p.m.
We need stronger enforcement of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act in the State of Michigan. Two years ago there was controversy over the discovery of City Council members in Ann Arbor using computers in council chambers to conduct campaign business during City Council meetings such as planning walking maps, contacting the City Clerk over competitor filing information. There was talk that this conduct may have run afoul of the Michiagn Campaign Finance Act as well as possibly also the Open Meetings Act. Despite this controversy there was no action taken nor any known investigation initiated to formally determine whether or not certain City Council members violated state law. There was also talk of some other elected officials registering their government office facilities as campaign contact information. This is unaceptable. The use of government facilities for campaign purposes is violative of the MCFA at MCL 169.257. Strict enforcement of allleged violations is reasonable and appropriate.