Let’s talk about a few topics related to Michigan election law. The last one is going to make you mad.

But first some good news: the Michigan Court of Claims ruled against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who had ordered clerks to simply presume that signatures on absentee ballots are valid without verifying them.

Democrats have repeatedly called 2020 “the most secure election ever.” How can you know if an election is secure if you don’t even take the minimal step of bothering to check if signatures match?

Signature fraud has been a real problem in recent elections. Several high-profile candidates for governor got disqualified in 2022 because their petitions to get on the ballot were rife with fraudulent signatures, and then the same thing happened to congressional candidates this year. Some people, sadly, are willing to cheat; we need a mechanism to protect against that.

The court was correct to rule against Benson. Signature verification is a necessary safeguard to prevent voter fraud.

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Democrats in the House and Senate recently rammed through legislation that will make it harder to challenge election results.

Under current law, recounts may be done based on allegations of fraud or mistake. Senate Bills 603 and 604, however, would change that by eliminating suspicion of fraud as a reason for a recount. In addition, recount petitions may only allege that there was an error, and that the results would have been different if not for the error.

Instead of going to a bipartisan board of canvassers, fraud allegations would be referred to a county prosecutor, which is a partisan position.

I voted against these changes.

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Word around the Capitol is that Democrats are whipping votes in the Legislature to see if they have enough support for House Bill 4156, which would change how Michigan’s electoral votes are awarded in future presidential elections by giving them to whoever wins the national popular vote rather than the candidate who wins the state.

If Michigan had awarded electoral college votes based on the popular vote in 2016, then Michigan’s electoral college votes would have gone to Hillary Clinton even though Trump won the state.

This is obviously a partisan move that undermines our concept of federalism, and it would seriously weaken Michigan’s role in choosing a president.

About 5.5 million people voted in Michigan during the 2020 election. That same year, New York City and Los Angeles cast more than 7 million votes. So just those two cities combined would outweigh our entire state.

I will oppose this change if it comes up for a vote.

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A parting thought until next week’s column: I take no pleasure in seeing the mental decline of our commander in chief. But I am glad to see that the mask has finally dropped and the media is finally reporting on his condition.