LANSING, Mich., May 1, 2025 — Earlier today, State Reps. Penelope Tsernoglou (D-East Lansing), Stephen Wooden (D-Grand Rapids) and Matt Koleszar (D-Plymouth) announced the upcoming introduction of the Security, Accountability, and Noninterference in our Elections (SANE) Plan.

The SANE Plan includes several wide-ranging bills that make it easier to vote but harder to cheat in our elections. The bills that were announced today range from ensuring that all members of the legislature actually reside in the districts that they represent to requiring the Department of State to verify that for all new voter registrations, the department has no records on file showing that the individual registering is a non-citizen and would provide more flexibility in cleaning up the voter rolls and removing outdated voter registrations.  

“Amidst Republican efforts to make it harder for thousands of American citizens to vote, myself and several of my Democratic colleagues in the House have been working on real, apolitical, and substantive bills that will remove any potential noncitizens from our voter rolls, all whilst making voting easier and more accessible than ever before,” said state Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou (D-East Lansing).

Tsernoglou continued, saying, “with the SANE Plan, we are making our elections more secure through common sense improvements, while also ensuring that we aren’t creating huge and onerous burdens for American citizens, like HJR B would.”

Just last night, House Republicans announced that House Joint Resolution B (HJR B) would be on the agenda for today’s session. This comes just weeks after House Republicans in the United States Congress pushed through a similar federal proposal.

“House Republicans seem more focused on everything except bringing down costs for everyday people, including trying to enact the dangerous SAVE Act here after it failed in the US Senate,” said state Rep. Stephen Wooden (D-Grand Rapids). “My colleagues and I are laser-focused on real solutions, including the pro-voter, pro-security and pro-accountability SANE plan.”

The first phase of the SANE plan was introduced today, a three-bill package known together as the Michigan Election Security Act. Initially proposed by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, House Democrats have worked with the Secretary’s office to finalize bill language and introducing them today. These bills do the following:

  • A bill sponsored by Wooden would require the Secretary of State to compare driver data to voter registration information to identify records of potential non-citizens that need further review.

 

  • A bill sponsored by Koleszar would give the Secretary of State the ability to remove voters who haven’t voted in 20 years from the voter rolls after notice.

 

  • A bill sponsored by Xiong would require the Secretary of State to regularly review the instructions on the voter registration form to ensure citizenship eligibility requirements are clearly described.

HJR B would potentially put over 2 million women in Michigan, who have changed their names following marriage or divorce and whose names may no longer match their birth certificate, at risk of disenfranchisement. Alternatively, the SANE Plan would not risk the potential disenfranchisement of even a single American citizen.

“Amidst their threats to push our budget talks off until the late summer or fall, risking an unprecedented statewide shutdown of the government, House Republicans here in Michigan have somehow found the time to bring forth a discriminatory poll tax for a vote,” said state Rep. Matt Koleszar (D-Plymouth). “While House Republicans continue to play to the most extreme members of their base, House Democrats have a SANE plan for all Michiganders, and it is one that prevents members from cheating their constituents by falsifying their residency, ensures that only citizens are voting in our elections, and so much more.”

House Democrats have long been interested in expanding the right to vote while maintaining the utmost levels of security and integrity for Michigan’s elections. That is why last term, Michigan House Democrats passed legislation to create a Secure Automatic Voter Registration system that registers Michiganders to vote when they apply for or renew their driver’s license and show proof of citizenship. Non-citizens are not eligible and filtered out of this process. When faced with an opportunity to support these bills, not a single Republican voted yes.