MI SB0402

Secretary of state shall enter into an agreement with one or more public research universities by November 5, 2025, to create the Michigan voting and elections database and institute to maintain a central repository of elections and voting data.

Database and institute shall maintain and publicly provide at no cost all relevant election and voting data for at least the previous 12-year period, including precinct-level election results, voter registration lists, polling place locations, early voting sites, ballot drop box locations, and demographic population estimates by racial, color, language minority, and disability status.

University or universities select the director; secretary of state covers costs of creating the agreement and transferring data while universities cover all other operating costs; memorandum of understanding term shall be at least 25 years.

Secretary of state must transmit all election results, voter registration lists, and related data to the database and institute within 180 days after each election; state agencies and local governments must provide publicly available election data upon request, with local governments reimbursed for allowable costs.

Local governments are no longer obligated to provide election and voting data through freedom of information requests once that data is posted on the institute's website, and must notify requesters to submit requests directly to the database and institute instead.