Byrum calls for paper ballots, primary after Michigan Dems acknowledge a delegate voted at home

At present, none of the losing candidates who sought top offices during the Michigan Democratic Party Endorsement Convention have said they would contest the results after learning that at least one delegate voted by phone from home and not on the convention floor, as prescribed by party rules.

But at least one of those candidates, Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, who was seeking the secretary of state nomination but lost to Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, has called on the party to tighten up its processes, switch to paper ballots and not use phone voting.

More significantly, Byrum has also called on the nomination process to be freed from control by party leaders in favor of a primary for voters statewide to decide. However, that would require the state to move up its primary from August to much earlier in the cycle, a measure that is already making its way through the Michigan Legislature.

“As an election administrator, as a Democrat, as you know, as my mother’s daughter, I value voter participation,” Byrum told Michigan Advance. “Although the Democrats saw a large turnout, over 7,000 individuals that came to the convention to vote, those individuals still had to be able to afford to if they couldn’t get on a bus that was provided by a campaign. In the Republican Party, they charged voters $50 in order to exercise their right to vote.”



https://michiganadvance.com/2026/04/29/byrum-calls-for-paper-ballots-primary-after-michigan-dems-acknowledge-a-delegate-voted-at-home/