Perceived problems associated with implementing proposal 3 election reforms in Michigan: A critical analysis of the opinions of LEOs

ABSTRACT

The present study was designed to examine LEOs perceived problems associated with implementing Michigan's Proposal 3 electoral reforms. More specifically, the effect of LEOs party affiliation on the perceived problems associated with early voter registration by mail, same-day voter registration/automatic voting, and no-excuse absentee voting in Michigan by analyzing the responses of 1342 LEOs. The results reveal that the party affiliation of LEOs has no influence on the perceived problems associated with implementing Proposal 3 electoral reforms in Michigan. Additionally, it was revealed that long waiting times, inaccurate voter lists, poll worker error, government support to improve election security, and the size of the population were significant predictors. These results provides support for the rational and institutional perspective on explaining electoral reforms. A detailed discussion of the results, direction for future studies, and limitations was done. Overall, the current study has enormous theoretical and practical significance.

KEYWORDS:

• Election reform
• voter registration
• Leos
• and absentee voting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. 15 States:Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas.

2. 10 States: Delaware, Kansas, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina*, Oklahoma, Oregon, Virginia, West Virginia.

3. 7 States:Alabama, Massachusetts, Montana*, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Michigan.

4. Full access to the Spring 2020 Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS) can be found using this LINK.

5. Q21a: In November 2018, Michigan voters approved the “Voting Policies in the State Constitution Initiative” (Proposal 3). To the best of your knowledge, have the specific reforms listed below had a positive or negative impact on your jurisdictions’ administration of the elections since then?

(a) Voter registration up to 15 days before an election via mail-in, online, and at the Secretary of State’s Office

(b) In-person same day voter registration up to and including election day at your local clerks’ office

(c) No-excuse absentee voting.

The initial survey responses for these questions were: no impact so far; very positive; mostly positive; mostly negative; very negative; and don’t know.

6. MPPS did an excellent job in overcoming some of the challenges related to surveying local government leaders such as LEOs, especially in relation to individual and geographical representation of respondents.