LANSING — House Republicans have introduced a resolution to amend the state constitution for Michigan residents to prove their citizenship before they can vote.

Supporters argue that the requirement would create more secure elections, but critics are worried that it would prevent eligible people from voting.

There was record turnout of more than 5.6 million voters across the state during the November 2024 election, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Under the House joint resolution, “The individual’s United States citizenship must be verified before the individual may vote a regular ballot or an absent voter ballot that is not treated as a provisional ballot at an election.”

But Democratic Rep. Julie Brixie of Okemos criticized the proposed change.

“It’s removing someone’s fundamental right to vote and this is all just based on if they can prove their citizenship,” she said.

Brixie said she is concerned that the mandate would restrict citizens’ ability to vote.

“They’re trying to make it so that the Secretary of State has to unregister thousands, tens of thousands of people to vote if certain things happen” Brixie said.

The proposal stems from the case of a Chinese student at the University of Michigan who was able to vote despite not being a U.S. citizen.

Supporters argue that the current system is vulnerable to noncitizens voting, while critics argue that Michigan and other states have had few election fraud cases involving noncitizens.

The lead sponsor of the resolution, Republican Rep. Bryan Posthumus of Rockford, said, “Even under this constitutional amendment, it’ll still be easier to vote than it is to shop at Costco.”

Posthumous said he worries that election integrity has declined in recent years.

“There’s just as much evidence showing that there is voter fraud as there is evidence that there’s no voter fraud,” Posthumus said. “The point is we don’t know. All we know is that there is a loophole in our election system right now and we can close that loophole very easily.”

In a press release, House Republicans said. “This is a no-brainer. Only U.S. citizens should vote in our elections.”

Kyle Zawacki is the legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, said the requirement would make it more difficult to vote.

“Nationally we’ve seen some research saying that this could impact up to 9% of eligible voters,” Zawacki said. “The amount that this would impact in Michigan of our voting population could be as high as 700,000 people.”

Critics also argue that some voters would not be able to provide the documents that would be required to vote, such as a birth certificate.

“There’s also time that’s involved in it. There’s access to documents. There’s issues with folks that may not be able to access documents because it’s either lost in a fire or in different states or different counties,” Zawacki said.

Similar legislation has been enacted in Kansas and Arizona, according to the ACLU. In Kansas, it was struck down by a court, and in Arizona it was upheld but only for state and local elections.

“These massive restrictions and hoops would need to be jumped through by legal voters because of a handful” of cases. “The juice isn’t worth that squeeze,” Zawacki said.