With the lame-duck session officially underway, the House on Wednesday also approved tax breaks for data centers and bills aimed at expanding hate crime laws and access to birth control, sending those measures to the Senate for consideration.

Related:

Democrats have been trying to ban guns at the polls since at least 2020, when Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson tried to do it herself. She was quickly sued by gun rights groups who claimed she was violating her Second Amendment rights.

Ultimately, the courts overturned Benson’s ban, ruling that she did exceeded his authority as Secretary of State, not that the policy itself is inherently unconstitutional.

Under lEGISLATION approved Wednesday, a person could not bring a firearm into or within 100 feet of a polling place while the polls are open on Election Day, unless they were carrying a concealed weapon and had a permit for to do this.

The same rules would apply to early voting locations, as well as absentee ballot boxes, for the 40 days before the election.

During that 40-day window, a person could not bring their gun into, or within 100 yards of, a city or town clerk’s office or their satellite locations. Violations could result in a $100 fine, up to 90 days in jail, or both.

House lawmakers on Wednesday signed off on several provisions that the state Senate added to bills in February, including allowing gun owners to keep their guns in their cars or have their guns on hand if they visit someone who lives within 100 miles. meters from a box or ballot. location.

Off-duty policemen would also be included in the list of persons authorized to carry a firearm in the vicinity of electoral activity.

Supporters of the Democratic-majority Legislature argued that banning guns at the polls would protect the democratic process and prevent voters from being intimidated by bad actors seeking to disrupt the election process.

Republicans opposed the bills on the grounds that they would restrict the rights of gun owners and could lead to law-abiding citizens being charged with a crime if they inadvertently walk past a box.

Hate crime laws

House Democrats are also making another attempt to write stricter bans on hate crimes into Michigan law. They approved the revised legislation Wednesday by a 57-52 vote, with one Republican backing.

Sponsor Rep. Noah Arbit, D-West Bloomfield, has long pushed to update a 1988 law banning “ethnic bullying” of race, religion, gender or national origin to include hate crimes based on sexual orientation, identity or expression of gender, disability or age.

He said Wednesday that the plan would help protect “every community in Michigan that faces hate crimes,” adding that most states already have hate crime laws comparable to the one proposed in Michigan.

Democratic lawmakers previously passed a different version of hate crime legislation, though the bills approved Wednesday were new.

Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, criticized the original plan, telling Bridge in April that the legislation it didn’t go far enough and called for stricter penalties. A Democratic Party spokesman said Wednesday that Nessel supports the new bills.

Most Republicans opposed the law. Rep. Rep. Josh Schriver, R-Oxford, argued in a speech that the proposal could lead to non-threatening behavior being interpreted as such and would amount to a violation of free speech.

“We cannot be a nanny state that will continually create situations where we monitor each other,” he said.

The legislation now heads to the Senate for further review.