By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
Lansing, MI – Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land has endorsed elections reforms that are bottled up in a state Senate Committee controlled by her fellow Republicans.
Land was testifying before the state House Elections and Ethics Committee.
Land says allowing voters to start casting ballots a week or more before Election Day would help shorten lines. She says half the votes are cast before Election Day in states that have tried early voting: "It still would not preclude people from voting on Election Day. I mean, you'd still have precincts on Election Day, that would still be what you'd have. So, this is just pre-Election Day."
Land also supports no-reason absentee voting, and pre-registering teens to vote before their 18th birthdays. Those reforms have all been approved by the House.
Democrats urged Land to help them get a hearing before the Republican-controlled Senate elections committee. A Senate spokeswoman says elections reforms are taking a backseat to the state's budget crisis.