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FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS: Voting and Voter Registration
September
2004
Voter
registration volunteers will face certain questions over and
over, both as they help citizens become registered to vote
and as they recruit others to register voters. The question
and answer format below deals with the kinds of questions
volunteer's are likely to face.
How
long does my voter registration
last?
In Michigan, a voter's registration has no expiration date.
Some people have been registered to vote for over 80
straight years without having to re-register.
One can have
his/her registration suspended while serving a prison term.
If you move out of Michigan and register to vote in another
state, that state will likely inform Michigan and your
Michigan registration will expire.
If you
remain in Michigan but do not vote for many years, the local
election clerk still has to maintain your registration
records. However, some jurisdictions misplace voter records
of people who, over the course of many years, have failed to
vote.
A person
whose address and name remain the same and who rarely votes,
say every two to four years, is very safe. The election
clerk will keep that registration in the active files used
during each election. It never moves into an "inactive" file
or gets lost.
If
I have a criminal record, can I still
vote?
In Michigan, if you have completed a prison term and are now
a free person who has "paid his/her debt to society," you
may vote. While serving time in prison, you may not vote.
The prohibition on voting includes other situations of being
"under confinement" while serving time: living in a half-way
house and being on a tether are two examples. People in jail
while waiting for a trial may still vote
absentee.
What
if my name and/or address changed
recently?
When people change their address, or have a name change due
to, say, marriage or divorce, election law states that they
are required to re-register under the new name and/or
address. However, there are circumstances where you can vote
one more time under the old address or name and re-register
at the same time. If the change occurred during the 60 days
preceding that election--and:
- You remain at the same
address but have changed your name, you can vote under
the old name and re-register under the new
name;
- You have moved to a new
address in the same jurisdiction, say to a different part
of the same city, you can vote at the old polling place
and re-register for the new address. If you have moved to
a totally new jurisdiction you are out of luck and cannot
vote.
Sometimes
people move totally out of the jurisdiction, such as to a
new city, but come back to vote at the old place. That is
against the law even if the person moved less than 60 days
before the election. See the State of Michigan Voter
Registration Application for more details.
What
if My Voter Registration and Driver License Addresses
Differ?
Under a recent change in Michigan election law you will not
be allowed to vote.
This is
something of particular importance if you register college
students. Some like to remain registered in their hometown,
but use their campus address to renew a driver license.
These students lose their right to vote. In the 2000
election, thousands of college students in Michigan lost
their vote in this way.
Do
I have to register as a member of a political
party?
In Michigan, we do not register a party preference. Michigan
is unusual in that regard: most states require one to
register a party preference or to register as an
"independent." States that require registration by party do
so to protect party primary elections: party registration
stops Democrats from voting in Republican primary elections
and visa-versa.
Can
I register to vote if I'm not yet 18 years
old?
You must be 18 or older to vote. You may register to vote
while less than 18 years old if you will turn 18 on or
before the day of the next election. If you will still be 17
on the next election day, you may not register to
vote.
Do
I show identification or my voter registration card when I
vote?
Normally, you do not. At the polling place you write your
name, address and birth date on a voter application form.
This helps election workers find your record so they can
check off that you have voted that day. The workers check to
see that your signature matches the one on your voter
registration application (sometimes from many years past).
Unless someone challenges the voter as trying to vote
fraudulently, nothing more is required. It is very rare that
somebody has to produce I.D.
That said,
for first-time Michigan voters who registered using the
mail-in voter registration form, we recommend that they have
a driver license or state I.D. card and the voter
registration card with them the first time they
vote.
Can
a handicapped person have help in
voting?
Yes, but the helper cannot give advice on how to vote or
otherwise try to persuade how the handicapper votes. A
voter's employer (or a representative of the employer), or a
voter's union representative, is prohibited from helping the
voter. A qualified voter who does not know English may have
help in understanding the ballot.
Where
can I get the best expert information about
voting?
Contact the Bureau of Elections, Michigan Department of
State, in Lansing at 517-373-2540.
FOR
VOLUNTEERS AS THEY DO VOTER REGISTRATION:
Why
do I have to remain nonpartisan? Don't I have a right to
state my views?
If a not-for-profit organization that enjoys certain tax
breaks helps with voter registration, it must be politically
neutral or risk losing its special status under federal tax
laws. That means its volunteers doing voter registration
must be politically neutral while they do voter registration
on behalf of the organization. We expect this voter
registration program to be carried out by people operating
on behalf of various early childhood education and care
organizations, including--possibly: Michigan 4C; Head Start
Programs; MiAEYC chapters; school districts and so on. The
Internal Revenue Service, which enforces tax law, has
indicated that it will look carefully for not-for-profit
organizations that violate the prohibition against
electioneering. Many national offices, such as the NAEYC
office, have worked hard to keep not-for-profits out of
electioneering activity. They believe that state and local
affiliates of national organizations can jeopardize even the
national organization by violating prohibitions against
electioneering. MiAEYC has joined NAEYC in stressing this
point.
All that
said, any individual has the right to personally help people
register to vote and, at the same time, openly support
partisan candidates and political parties. They just cannot
do it while representing a not-for-profit, tax exempt
organization.
And now, we
will close this FAQ paper with the following, a statement by
MiAEYC as it distributes its voter registration kit to you
and invites you to share it with others:
These
voter registration services are available without regard
to the voter's political preference. Information and
other assistance regarding registering or voting shall
not be offered, withheld or refused on the basis of
support for or opposition to particular candidates or a
particular party.
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