Thank you for your question!
I do not support a part time legislature. As a representative in the Legislature for nearly 100,000 Livingston County residents managing nearly 50 billion taxpayer dollars, the responsibility is tremendous. Each member of the Legislature better be spending 12-14 hours a day, six days a week studying our budget, policy and our economy, if he or she is to be making informed and productive decisions and proposals for how to transform our state into the strongest, healthiest, most educated, and most productive state in the country. I do support eliminating summer breaks and any breaks for that matter. A representative who is not willing or able to devote this much time and energy should hold not this job in which the future of our children and all Michigan families, as well as the future of our state depends on strong, informed policymaking.

If they answer no, please follow up with these questions:

1) With photo ID requirements being common for many everyday interactions, why not have the same requirement for voting?

2) Do you think that our current system of allowing those without voter ID to
sign an affidavit of identification is secure enough to prevent those who want to commit fraud?

3) Are there any modifications to voting that you would support that are designed to either discourage fraud or make it more difficult?

4) Do you agree with those that feel a fraudulent vote potentially negates their vote and therefore takes away their right to vote?

If they answer that they are in favor of new restrictions/requirements, please follow up with these questions:

1) Do you accept that there will be some, albeit a small number, of legal voters who will not have the required identification and will have no means of acquiring it?

2) Do you accept that there will be more legal voters who, while they could theoretically attain the required identification, would be so burdened by it that they instead choose not to vote?

3) Do you have any examples of fraudulent voting that a photo ID requirement would’ve prevented, and shouldn’t evidence of such cases be a requirement before potentially taking away the right to vote from legal citizens?

4) Is there any reason to believe that a photo ID requirement would prevent fraud? If a common argument against gun laws is that criminals by definition don’t follow the law, so gun laws result in law-abiding citizens not having guns, yet criminals still being able to obtain them, wouldn’t a similar argument suggest that voter ID laws would prevent law-abiding citizens from voting, but those who want to commit fraud could still do so with a fake ID?

I believe that as Americans, we take voting seriously and we do it with a sense of pride and responsiblity. In order to preserve the integrity of our voting system I do believe that we must stay on constant guard. The new proposal on voting requirements is mediocre is some aspects and poor in others in terms of strengenthing our voting system. As Jordan mentioned, fake id's which are common among teens who attempt to purchase alcohol underage, are readily available online on many different websites. Therefore this photo i.d. policy may fall short of preventing those who truly want to break the law from doing so, and may add an extra hassle for Michiganders who are trying to vote but who do not have an up to date license or picture id of some sort. We must focus instead on drawing more legal Michiganders out to vote so that our democratic process is stronger. This proposal regulates voter registration drives in a restrictive way mandating that those individuals who wish to engage other legal Michiganders in our democratic process by ballot initiative or voter registration must be approved by a board. This sort of governmental interference in our lives is something I do not support.