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SB-962, As Passed Senate, June 16, 2026
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SENATE BILL NO. 962
A bill to create a voting and elections database and
institute; to provide for the powers and duties of certain state
and local governmental officers and entities; and to provide
remedies.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 1. This act may be cited as the "voting and elections 1
database and institute act". 2
Sec. 3. As used in this act: 3
(a) "Database and institute" means the Michigan voting and 4
May 13, 2026, Introduced by Senators MOSS, CAMILLERI, GEISS, CHANG, SANTANA,
SINGH, CAVANAGH, SHINK, KLINEFELT, POLEHANKI, BRINKS, IRWIN, WOJNO,
BAYER, CHERRY, HERTEL, MCCANN and ANTHONY and referred to Committee on
Elections and Ethics.
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elections database and institute created in section 5(1). 1
(b) "Local government" means any of the following: 2
(i) A county. 3
(ii) A city, township, or any other political subdivision of 4
this state that conducts an election. 5
Sec. 5. (1) No later than November 5, 2027, the secretary of 6
state shall enter into an agreement with 1 or more public research 7
universities in this state to create the Michigan voting and 8
elections database and institute to maintain and administer a 9
central repository of elections and voting data available to the 10
public from all local governments in this state and to foster, 11
pursue, and sponsor research on existing laws and best practices in 12
voting and elections. 13
(2) The database and institute shall provide a center for 14
research, training, and information on voting systems and election 15
administration. The database and institute may do any of the 16
following: 17
(a) Conduct classes both for credit and noncredit. 18
(b) Organize interdisciplinary groups of scholars to research 19
voting and elections in this state. 20
(c) Conduct seminars involving voting and elections. 21
(d) Establish a nonpartisan centralized database in order to 22
collect, archive, and make publicly available at no cost an 23
accessible database pertaining to elections, voter registration, 24
and ballot access in this state. 25
(e) Assist in the dissemination of election data to the 26
public. 27
(f) Publish books and periodicals as the database and 28
institute considers appropriate on voting and elections in this 29
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state. 1
(g) Provide nonpartisan technical assistance to local 2
governments, scholars, and the general public seeking to use the 3
resources of the database and institute. 4
(3) If the secretary of state enters into an agreement with 1 5
or more public research universities as provided under subsection 6
(1), the parties to that agreement shall enter into a memorandum of 7
understanding that includes, but is not limited to, all of the 8
following: 9
(a) The initial term of the memorandum of understanding is for 10
not less than 25 years. 11
(b) The public research university or universities select the 12
director of the database and institute. 13
(c) The secretary of state is responsible only for the costs 14
of entering into the memorandum of understanding with the public 15
research university or universities to create the database and 16
institute and for the transfer of election and voting data and 17
records, and the public research university or universities are 18
responsible for any other costs associated with operating the 19
database and institute. 20
(4) The database and institute shall maintain in an electronic 21
format, and make publicly available as described in this 22
subsection, all relevant election and voting data and records for 23
at least the previous 12-year period. Except for any data, 24
information, or estimates that identify individual electors, the 25
data, information, and estimates, as described in this subsection, 26
must be posted on the institute's website and made available to the 27
public at no cost. Maps, election day polling places, early voting 28
sites, and absent voter ballot drop box locations must be made 29
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available in a geospatial file format. The database and institute 1
shall prepare any estimates made under this section by applying the 2
most advanced, peer-reviewed, and validated methodologies 3
available. The data and records that must be maintained include, 4
but are not limited to, all of the following: 5
(a) Estimates of the total population, voting age population, 6
and citizen voting age population by racial, color, or language 7
minority group and disability status, broken down to the precinct 8
level, on a year-by-year basis, for every local government in this 9
state, based on data from the United States Census Bureau, 10
including the American Community Survey, collected by a public 11
office. 12
(b) Election results at the precinct level for every federal, 13
state, and local election held in every local government in this 14
state. 15
(c) The most recent general election voter registration lists, 16
voter history data, election day polling places, early voting 17
sites, and absent voter ballot drop box locations for every 18
election in every local government in this state. 19
(d) The most recent general election maps or other 20
documentation of the configuration of precincts. 21
(e) Election day polling places and early voting sites, 22
including, but not limited to, lists of precincts assigned to each 23
election day polling place and early voting site, if applicable. 24
(f) Adopted districting or redistricting plans for every 25
election in every local government in this state. 26
(g) Any other data that the director of the database and 27
institute considers necessary to maintain in furtherance of the 28
purposes of the database and institute. 29
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(5) The database and institute shall implement rigorous 1
cybersecurity standards for the election and voting data and 2
records maintained by the database and institute that are 3
comparable to the cybersecurity standards implemented by the 4
department of technology, management, and budget. 5
(6) After the required 12-year period for making data, 6
information, and estimates publicly available, as described in 7
subsection (4), all relevant election and voting data and records 8
must be permanently maintained in an electronic format by the 9
database and institute for archival purposes. 10
(7) The data, information, and estimates maintained by the 11
database and institute may, in the discretion of a court, be relied 12
on as evidence. 13
(8) No later than 180 days after an election, the secretary of 14
state shall transmit to the database and institute copies of all of 15
the following: 16
(a) Election results at the precinct level. 17
(b) The most recent general election voter registration lists. 18
(c) Voter history data. 19
(d) Maps, descriptions, and shapefiles for election districts. 20
(e) Lists of election day polling places and early voting 21
sites, shapefiles, or descriptions of the precincts assigned to 22
each election day polling place and early voting site. 23
(9) Subject to this subsection, all state agencies and local 24
governments shall timely provide the secretary of state with any 25
publicly available election and voting data and records that are 26
reasonably requested by the secretary of state. Before the 27
secretary of state requests any publicly available election and 28
voting data and records from state agencies and local governments 29
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under this subsection, the secretary of state must consult with the 1
director of the database and institute, the Michigan Association of 2
County Clerks, and the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks. 3
Upon receiving any publicly available election and voting data and 4
records from state agencies and local governments under this 5
subsection, the secretary of state shall transfer those publicly 6
available election and voting data and records in a timely manner 7
to the database and institute. 8
(10) Subject to this subsection, the secretary of state shall 9
reimburse each local government for the cost of providing any 10
requested election and voting data and records to the secretary of 11
state as required under subsection (9). The reimbursement of a 12
local government must not exceed the allowable costs to the local 13
government as described in section 4 of the freedom of information 14
act, 1976 PA 442, MCL 15.234. To qualify for reimbursement, a local 15
government must submit a verified account of its allowable costs to 16
the secretary of state no later than 90 days after the requested 17
election and voting data and records are provided to the secretary 18
of state. No later than 90 days after the secretary of state 19
receives a verified account of allowable costs from a local 20
government as provided under this subsection, the secretary of 21
state shall pay or disapprove the verified account. 22
(11) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the 23
contrary, after a local government has provided any requested 24
election and voting data and records to the secretary of state as 25
required under subsection (9), and those election and voting data 26
and records have been posted on the institute's website as provided 27
under subsection (4), that local government is no longer obligated 28
to provide those election and voting data and records in response 29
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to a written request under the freedom of information act, 1976 PA 1
442, MCL 15.231 to 15.246. If that local government receives a 2
written request from a person under the freedom of information act, 3
1976 PA 442, MCL 15.231 to 15.246, for election and voting data and 4
records as described in this subsection, the local government 5
shall, within 10 business days after receiving the written request, 6
give written notice to the requesting person that the request for 7
the election and voting data and records must be submitted to the 8
database and institute. 9
(12) The attorney general, the director of the database and 10
institute, or a designee of the attorney general or director may 11
file an action to enforce compliance with this section. 12
(13) No later than 90 days following the end of each state 13
fiscal year, the database and institute shall publish a report on 14
the priorities and finances of the database and institute. 15
(14) Subsections (2) to (13) take effect May 5, 2028. 16
Enacting section 1. This act does not take effect unless all 17
of the following bills of the 103rd Legislature are enacted into 18
law: 19
(a) Senate Bill No. 961. 20
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(b) Senate Bill No. 963. 22