REAPING WHAT YOU SOW
Speaking of Republican Matt DePerno, despite losing to become state attorney general, remaining under criminal investigation by a special prosecutor in a possible vote tampering scheme and under examination by the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission over possible padding of billings, he has a new questionable idea he has proposed to Republican delegates as he seeks their votes for post of GOP chair: ballot harvesting. As in, pay people to collect absentee ballots. Which is absolutely illegal. In fact, as Bridge Michigan notes, “using political operatives to collect and return ballots from multiple voters – remains illegal in Michigan. Existing law generally makes it a felony crime punishable by up to five years in prison.” Michigan voters, in both 2018 and 2022, have overwhelmingly said they want to have the right to vote absentee, and to have the ability to easily return their ballots in their community. Per the 2022 ballot proposal, in future elections, local governments will have to maintain at least one absentee ballot drop box for every 15,000 voters. It does not allow people to run around the state “picking up” absentee ballots from voters – which could be seen as coercion. “It goes along with every other way DePerno’s crossed the line throughout his career,” said one Republican politico.