Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is pushing lawmakers to make election day a state holiday, among other sweeping changes to make elections more accessible.
Her new agenda calls for absentee ballots applications to get mailed to voters every federal election cycle and allow local clerks to start processing absentee ballots two weeks before election day. Benson also wants to limit openly carrying guns at polling locations.
She's hopeful Michigan's Republican led legislature will work with her.
I believe wholeheartedly in the principles of bipartisan consensus and cooperation, I also believe in making data driven decisions about the best policies to put into place, especially when you’re working to ensure the integrity and accessibility of our democratic process.
She says she's pushing changes made apparent from both the successes and lessons learned in 2020, when the state saw record voter turnout.