Former Ottawa County Clerk endorses 'Promote the Vote' ballot initiative

Daniel Krueger, former Ottawa County Clerk for 36 years, announced his support for Proposal 3, also known as the ‘Promote the Vote’ ballot initiative today, September 25, 2018. “I advocate strongly that the people of Michigan vote yes on this proposal because it will enhance their access to elections and it will promote more security in the process than we presently have,” said Krueger.

The ballot proposal would amend the state’s constitution to secure voting changes regardless of which party is in power in the state of Michigan at the time.

The proposal allows voters to get an absentee ballot without providing a reason, enables voters to vote a straight party ticket if they choose, automatically be registered to vote when getting a driver’s license or state ID unless one declines, and allows for registering to vote and provide proof of residency during the two weeks up to and including Election Day.

Currently citizens have to register to vote 30 days before an election, which is by October 9, 2018 for this coming general election.

Krueger said, “It complies more closely with the national Voter Registration Act and is a benefit to people in the state of Michigan. You gotta remember the reason it’s 30 days is because years ago almost all of this was done by pen and paper. You had to take the registration manually in a file and manually added to lists. With technology, that’s all changed. You come in and register to vote and they’re putting it right in the computer, right in the precinct, right in their file right away. And there isn’t any reason why we need 30 days anymore.”

Kim Trent, representing Promote the Vote said, “I think it’s important to note this proposal is supported all over the state. We got signatures from every county in Michigan. In addition, this is a nonpartisan effort. This is an effort to improve access to the vote.”

Krueger also took time to explain the change back to straight party ticket voting a couple times. When voting, citizens can vote a straight ticket, or check one box which votes for all the people in one party. Michigan does not have straight party ticket voting in general elections currently.

“Getting rid of the straight party vote only makes the process longer. It takes a whole lot more time, in some cases estimates 16 hours more to vote in the precincts. All that will do is put longer lines in the precincts. When you have a straight party ticket you can still go through and vote for the individual candidates you want to other than whom you voted for in the straight party in general election votes. If you vote straight party Democrat and go down and vote Republican or Libertarian for a certain candidate, the machines will count that. You can vote for individual candidates even if you vote straight party. In my estimation, we need to put straight party back on the ballot. It saves time and still allows people to vote for whom they want regardless of party,” Krueger said.

He also said concerns about this increasing fraud are unwarranted, noting these changes don’t make fraud more likely than before. “The registration, whether it be now, and remember we’re looking at same-day registration as well, you can go into the clerk’s office to register to vote. Providing you prove all of the issues-your residency, citizenship and everything else-just like you would at the Secretary of State’s office, but now within those 15 days it has to be only at the local clerk’s office. Once you prove that on election day, you may register to vote and the clerk will give you a document that allows you to go to your precinct and vote...So the fraud issue, people love to throw this out, but you have to remember there’s a whole lot of things that have to happen," Krueger said.

Krueger also pointed out that the state’s Qualified Voter File automatically updates statewide, preventing people from registering to vote in more than one place.

Jeremy DeRoo, Executive Direct of LINC UP where the press conference was held said, “LINC supports Proposal Three. A lot of what’s in this proposal isn’t new, we’re just trying to catch Michigan up to this decade.”