Michigan legislation would allow 16-year-old's to pre-register to vote

Michigan House Bill 4569 would permit Michiganders aged 16 to 17 and a half to pre-register to vote. The legislation would also require the coordination of a “public education and outreach campaign” to make these voters aware of their ability to pre-register.

Click here to read the proposed legislation.

The legislation is sponsored by state Rep. Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City), seeks to improve youth voter turnout by pre-registering at a younger age. Coffia said that 16 is an age when people begin to take on their first legal responsibilities, making it a fitting time to pre-register to become an elector. 

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“At 16 you get a driver’s license, and once you do, you’re deemed responsible enough to obey and be accountable to traffic laws as much as any other licensed driver,” Coffia said. “It’s a significant threshold.”

The Secretary of State would send every sixteen and eighteen-year-old with a driver’s license or ID card a reminder to register.

Rep. Jay DeBoyer, R-Clay, told MLive he’s greatly concerned about the bill because it deviates from lawmakers’ duties into the territory of voting advocates encouraging people to vote.

“While I listen to testimony and I hear people talk about the things we have to do to encourage more people to vote,” DeBoyer said, “that’s not my statutory obligation, nor is that a clerk’s obligation, nor is it a poll worker’s obligation.”

And Lansing’s Chris Swope said his office looked at census data and found they had at least a few thousand unregistered 18-to-22-year-olds in the city.

“So, anything that we can do to get folks registered and voting earlier is better,” Swope told lawmakers.

Coffia’s bill is part of a four-bill package.