When Michigan state lawmakers left Lansing in June for their summer recess to hit the campaign trail, they left behind a stack of bills for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to sign into law.
Last month, she put her signature on legislation to overhaul election recounts in Michigan, criminalize necrophilia, create a prevailing wage requirement for wind and solar projects in the state and ban gay and trans panic defense in criminal cases, which specifies that someone's sexual orientation or gender identity can't be used as evidence to defend an alleged crime against them.
In addition to the slew of policy bills, Whitmer also signed budget bills for the upcoming fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, providing funding for state departments and schools for programs new and old while the other bills Whitmer signed will usher in long-term changes.
A new recount law
A pair of bills Whitmer signed into law July 8 will bring significant shifts to the process for conducting election recounts in Michigan. But they won't take effect until after the Nov. 5 election.
The new recount law will require candidates and ballot committees requesting a recount to request a review of enough votes to change the outcome of the election. It comes after recounts of abortion and voting rights ballot proposals in 2022 did not include enough votes to possibly change the outcome, even though they left taxpayers footing a significant portion of the bill for the review. Members of the state's elections panel that oversaw the recounts blasted them as frivolous at the time.
Under the new law, election workers will also be able to recount so-called out-of-balance precincts that don't report an explanation for why the number of ballots recorded as cast in the pollbook does not match the number of ballots tabulated, an outcome election experts attribute to routine clerical recording errors.
Michigan law currently includes a broad prohibition on recounting such precincts and it stands out nationally as one of the strictest recount laws on the books. It became a flashpoint in 2020 when the Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers initially refused to certify the election results, citing the number of out of balance precincts in Detroit without an explanation.
Democrats holding legislative majorities in the state House and Senate passed the recount bills over unanimous Republican opposition to them. GOP lawmakers blasted them as an effort to remove an avenue to investigate potential election fraud because the new law would require a candidate or ballot committee requesting a recount to allege an error in the results rather than fraud.
Michigan criminalizes sex with a corpse
Whitmer also signed into law bills criminalizing necrophilia in Michigan.
The necrophilia ban is called "Melody's Law," named after Melody Rohrer, a retired nurse who was killed in 2021, according to a summary of the legislation. During the course of the investigation, prosecutors discovered that sexually violating a dead body isn't a crime in Michigan, according to the summary. The new law will make it a 15-year felony to have sex with a corpse and sexual contact a two-year felony. Offenders will be added to Michigan's sex offender registry.
The legislation passed unanimously in the state Legislature and the new law takes effect Oct. 6.
The 'Homeowner's Energy Policy Act'
On a party-line vote, Democrats passed legislation invalidating homeowners' associations from prohibiting members from making wide range energy-saving home improvements. The list of improvements that can't be prohibited is long: a clothesline, air source and ground source heat pumps, insulation and energy-efficient insulation materials, rain barrels, reflective roofing, energy efficient appliances, solar water heaters, electric vehicle supply equipment and energy-efficient windows.
The new law will also bar homeowners' associations from prohibiting the installation of solar energy systems. It takes effect 90 days after the state Legislature adjourns for the year.
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Unequal installments for car payment plans
A bill Whitmer signed into law would bring Michigan in line with most states that allow car payment plans for new vehicle purchases to include unequal installments, enabling consumers to pay higher amounts upfront before reducing their payments or vice versa.
According to testimony on the bill, Michigan was previously one of eight states that didn't allow unequal car payments.
Contact Clara Hendrickson: chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X, previously called Twitter, @clarajanehen.
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