The head of Michigan’s House Elections Committee is feeling the 2020 election was stolen

By Rachel Greco

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The head of Michigan's House Elections Committee is feeling the 2020 election was stolen

State Rep. Rachelle Smit, a former local clerk who believes President Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential election was stolen, will lead the Michigan House’s elections committee under the new GOP leadership.

Smit, a Republican from Martin, was named chair of the House’s Election Integrity Committee, which has since been renamed.

Her claims that the 2020 election was stolen were widely refuted, but she received an endorsement from President Donald Trump, who described her as someone “who knows our elections are not secure, and that there was rampant voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election.”

“I absolutely think that it was stolen, yeah, and I’m not shy to say that,” Smit said in an interview with Votebeat, repeating false claims that “ballot dumps” occurred in the early morning hours following Election Day in 2020.

In 2023, she argued that a group of Michigan Trump supporters charged with creating a forged slate of electors for Trump after the 2020 election had done nothing wrong, despite Joe Biden’s victory in Michigan, and that their actions were “completely legal.” She has also endorsed Dar Leaf, the Barry County sheriff who has gained national attention for his efforts to investigate the 2020 election.

Smit, who is also the Michigan House speaker pro tempore, previously worked as township clerk in Martin, in southwestern Michigan. She served as the minority vice chair of the elections committee during the previous session, when Democrats controlled the House.

She will now lead the committee’s work on voting, elections, campaign finance, and other legislation over the next two years. This includes the Republican-led effort to amend Michigan’s Constitution to require voters to provide proof of citizenship, which Smit co-sponsors.

The House joint resolution, introduced on Wednesday, will first go through the election integrity committee before likely being heard by the full House.

“It’s extremely important,” she said. “That’s going to be the first order of business that we take up.”

Smit, like other Republicans in the House, stated that she sees no reason to doubt the security of Michigan’s elections. Rather, she hopes to convey to Michigan residents that legislators take the integrity of the state’s elections seriously.

Leader of clerks group points to successful 2024 election

Smit’s leadership position has been met with cautious optimism by groups dedicated to increasing access to the ballot box. Promote The Vote, a coalition of voting rights organizations that helped get 2022’s Proposal 2 before voters, said in a statement that it looks forward to working with her “to ensure that our elections remain secure and accessible.”

Melanie Ryska, Sterling Heights city clerk and president of the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks, stated that her organization is dedicated to protecting voters’ rights and the security of elections. She also wondered when election officials at all levels would move on from the false claims and conspiracy theories that emerged following the 2020 presidential election.

Ryska and Promote The Vote both stated that Smit’s experience as a clerk would provide her with “unique insight” into the state’s election administration.

But, given that Michigan is only a few months removed from another successful presidential election, Ryska questioned the need for more extensive rewrites of election law. She said she felt local officials “answered the call,” despite a flurry of constitutional changes in recent years.

“Our clerks showed that elections are secure and that there are plenty of checks and balances in place,” Ryska told the crowd.

Smit’s other committee priorities include identifying vulnerabilities in the state’s election laws and revising laws regarding specific government vacancies, such as the one in her district last term.

When an Allegan County commissioner up for election died in August, just before the primary, the other commissioners appointed a replacement. However, the law is unclear as to who should have appeared on the ballot in place of the deceased commissioner.

Last year, Smit introduced a bill to address it with two other Republicans and a Democrat, but it did not make it out of committee after legislative activity in the House effectively ceased in the final weeks.

The Michigan Voting Rights Act, which died late in the session despite receiving the support of the Michigan Senate, will not be revived.

The bill package would have increased the availability of ballots in various languages and, among other things, aimed to prevent voter suppression. Supporters claimed it aimed to close gaps in the federal Voting Rights Act that had been eroded by court decisions.

Smit had expressed concerns about the package during committee hearings last session, and now that she is leading the committee, she says she “can’t get on board” with the legislation.

During a hearing on them in December, Smit stated that she had heard from a number of local clerks who opposed it. The state’s clerks associations remained neutral on the proposals, supporting the ideas but expressing concerns about funding and the added burden on clerks who had already dealt with a number of changes to election law in recent years.

“That’s a very strong message that this is not the right way about doing that,” she had said the previous week.

Who is on the election integrity committee?

Other Republican committee members include vice chair Rep. Joseph Fox of Fremont, as well as Reps. Pat Outman of Six Lakes, Greg Alexander of Carsonville, Mike Hoadley of Au Gres, and Joseph Pavlov of Smiths Creek. Each of these representatives co-sponsored the House joint resolution introducing the proof-of-citizenship constitutional amendment.

Democratic members of the committee include Grand Rapids Rep. Stephen Wooden, Plymouth Rep. Matt Koleszar, and Warren Rep. Mai Xiong. Wooden, who is serving his first term in the legislature, will be the minority vice chairman.

Wooden acknowledged that he would have little control over the agenda, but he told Votebeat that he hoped to find common ground with Republican committee members.

“I know that often, the elections committee can be a place where you see some of the most bipartisan, commonsense legislation by working with the clerks to get mechanical changes to our elections and ensure our elections are moving smoothly,” according to him.

The committee is expected to meet in the coming days, but no official time has been set.

Source

Rachel Greco

Rachel Greco covers life in US County, including the communities of Grand Ledge, Delta Township, Charlotte and US Rapids. But her beat extends to local government, local school districts and community events in communities that surround Lansing. Her goal is to tell compelling stories about the area that matter to local readers.

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