I have now officially lost respect for Secretary of State Ruth Johnson (R-Michigan, 2011 — 2019). As recently as a week ago, I would have been willing to believe that she’s a Romney Republican: not a bleeding heart liberal, but at least someone with some sense of honesty and bipartisanship.
But with the letter she sent me last week, I can no longer believe that. Another clue is that she’s currently in the state legislature as a Republican. Now she wants me and half a million other Michigan voters to sign a petition to amend the Michigan Constitution to clarify that only U.S. citizens are eligible to vote in Michigan and local elections.
And, as if there wasn’t enough friction for voting in Michigan, the amendment would require the current Secretary of State to review the state’s qualified voter file “and remove any voters whose citizenship cannot be confirmed.”
That should set off alarm bells. The potential for abuse is extreme. Don’t like how someone has voted in the past? Oops, can’t confirm their citizenship. Someone is slightly swarthy? Also having trouble confirming citizenship.
The amendment language does say the verification process shall be “uniform, systematic and nondiscriminatory.” But the amendment also puts in some very tight deadlines for counting ballots and disputing non-confirmation. What do you think is going to matter more if the Secretary of State is a Republican?
The amendment would also mandate voters to show official identification when voting, supposedly “while also ensuring that free photo IDs are available to those who need them.” Color me skeptical on that last part as well.
In Michigan, the Secretary of State is responsible for administering statewide elections but also has responsibilities akin to other states’ departments of motor vehicles. Michigan residents go to Secretary of State branch offices for identification cards, drivers’ licenses, vehicle registration, vehicle license plates, handicapped parking placards, watercraft decals, etc.
I show identification in every election I’ve voted in, and I encourage everyone else to do the same, as a matter of principle, not because it’s a legal requirement. Also, it speeds up the whole voting process.
Johnson wrote an op-ed in the Detroit News saying that “these safeguards are urgently needed.” The Americans for Citizen Voting Michigan website states that
Here in Michigan, we saw last November that noncitizens were able to vote illegally — the Chinese student at UM [University of Michigan] and then at least 15 more noncitizens cast ballots. [originally bold]
Even if I believe “at least 15 more,” I suspect it would be more precise to say “exactly 15 more” (though Johnson’s op-ed says “16 additional non-citizens”). That might make a difference for local elections in a place like Pointe Aux Barques Township, which is said to have fifteen residents, if enough fraudulent voters were concentrated in such a small town.
Still,
When a non‑citizen casts a ballot—like all those we know did in Michigan’s 2024 General Election—it cancels out the vote of a lawful U.S. citizen, diminishing the voice of those who are legally eligible to participate.
Since Johnson cares so much about the voice of those who are legally eligible to participate, surely she advocated for automatic voter registration? Nope, that was her successor, current Secretary of State and gubernatorial hopeful Jocelyn Benson (D-Michigan). In a 2019 press release from her office, it is explained that
In the November 2018 election, Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved the Promote the Vote constitutional amendment, which contained measures to make voting more accessible and secure, including a provision that requires the automatic registration of citizens to vote at [Secretary of State] branch offices unless the citizen declines.
According to an NPR article from July of last year,
After ... Trump and many other Republicans warned that vast numbers of non-U.S. citizens would influence last year's [2024] election, states and law enforcement have devoted more resources than ever before to root out those ineligible voters.
More than six months into Trump's second term, they haven't found much.
New research out Wednesday [in July 2025] tracking state government efforts across the country confirms what election experts have said all along: Noncitizen voting occasionally happens but in minuscule numbers, and not in any coordinated way.
"Noncitizens are not a large threat to our election system currently," said David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR), which conducted the research. "Even states that are looking everywhere to try to amplify the numbers of noncitizens [voting] … when they actually look, they find a surprisingly, shockingly small number."
Huh.
Some states, such as Michigan and Georgia, have undertaken audits of their entire voter rolls, using resources from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to check for noncitizens. Michigan officials announced in April [2025] that a review found that "cases of noncitizens casting a ballot in Michigan elections are extremely rare." The review found more than a dozen noncitizens appear to have illegally voted in the 2024 general election. That's 0.00028% of the state's total votes.
Even so, Benson regards this as a very serious issue.
"We want to have no evidence of people who aren't eligible voting in our elections," Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat who's now running for governor, said in an interview after the audit was completed. "But this is a serious issue and it has to be addressed with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer."
I agree that it is a serious issue, definitely one the Secretary of State should concern herself with. I trust Benson will take care of it, in a carefully targeted manner.
Johnson’s petition is not about “election integrity” or whatever euphemism the Republicans are using these days. This is about discouraging and intimidating non-Republican voters.
Johnson gave me a deadline of February 12 to sign the petition. That’s one deadline I will deliberately let come and go. I will not sign.
But I worry that half a million other Michigan voters will sign the petition. Then the petition would be on this year’s November ballot, and if it gets a simple majority, it would go into effect next year.
