Summary — HB 6054 (Criminal procedure: sentencing guidelines for certain election offenses)
Status
- Introduced: November 7, 2024 (Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou et al.).
- House action: Passed the House (Dec. 11, 2024) with immediate effect; reported/transmitted. Committee and floor actions completed; referred to committee in the Senate/other committees (Government Operations; later referred to Joint Committee on General Law 1/22/2025).
- Governor enactment: Not enacted as of this summary. The bill contains an enactment condition: it does not take effect unless companion House Bill 6055 (or a specified Senate bill) is also enacted.
Purpose and intent
- HB 6054 updates section 11d of chapter XVII (MCL 777.11d) of the Code of Criminal Procedure to specify which felony offenses in chapter 168 (the Michigan Election Law) are subject to the state sentencing guidelines and to identify their guideline categories (e.g., Class E, Class G, Person offenses).
- The bill is a companion/technical complement to HB 6055, which makes substantive election-law changes (not included here); HB 6054 aligns sentencing-guideline references with those election-law provisions.
Key provisions
- Amends MCL 777.11d to list a set of election-related felony provisions from chapter 168 that the sentencing-guidelines chapter will apply to. The bill names numerous offenses (by MCL cross-reference) and assigns each a guideline category. Examples included:
- Signing a nominating or qualifying petition with multiple names (multiple petition-related sections).
- Disclosing an early voting or election voting site before election day.
- Filing false statements or making false statements in absentee/emergency absentee applications; forged signatures.
- Assisting an absentee voter to make false statements; absentee ballot tampering; organizing meetings to vote absentee ballots.
- Interfering with a recount or recount activities.
- Intimidating or bribing voters; ballot tampering; destroying or falsifying election returns/records.
- Intimidating election officials; impersonating an election official; materially deceptive media (certain repeat offenses); election-related perjury and forgery.
- Each listed offense is mapped to a sentencing category (most shown as “Pub trst” with class E or G, or “Person E” for certain offenses). By placing these offenses in section 11d, the bill makes clear the sentencing-guidelines framework that judges must consider for convictions of those offenses.
Who is affected
- Defendants convicted of the enumerated election-law felonies, and therefore sentencing courts that impose sentences under Michigan’s sentencing guidelines.
- Prosecutors and defense attorneys (clarifies sentencing framework to be applied).
- Indirectly affects election administrators and voters to the extent that clearer sentencing treatment of election offenses influences enforcement and prosecutorial practices.
Timing and special notes
- The amendatory act is conditioned on enactment of HB 6055 (or an equivalent Senate bill). If that companion legislation is not enacted, HB 6054 does not take effect.
- HB 6054 primarily makes statutory cross-reference and sentencing-guideline application changes rather than changing substantive criminal definitions or penalties in chapter 168 itself.
