Reform Michigan: No-Reason Absentee Voting

I just stumbled across an editorial from the Lansing State (July 10, 2008 edition) which brings out a very simple point about no-reason absentee voting.  It notes that in the Reform Michigan NOW ballot proposal, on section creates no reason absentee voting.  Well, why can’t the legislature just do it?  They have tried in the past and yet nothing has ever been able to make it to law.  Below is an excert:

In Michigan, unless you are a senior citizen, you are required to provide a proper reason for requesting a ballot before Election Day.

This is an impediment to voting – and unfair. Why should senior citizens be given a voting option denied to younger voters?

Year after year, legislation is filed at the State Capitol to alter the law. Quite a few of these bills, some backed by Democrats, some by Republicans, would authorize “no-reason” balloting. If any registered voter wants an absentee ballot, they can get it – without giving a reason.

Yet the bills have invariably gone nowhere.

… (read the entire editorial)

I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone who knows me that I tend to like the Lansing State Journal – and it’s these kinds of editorials that make me like them!