LANSING, MI – Secretary of State Ruth Johnson is neither a paperboy nor U.S. Rep. and former Secretary of State Candice Miller, but she’s been mistaken for both.
“I asked her… when they say I’m doing a great job in D.C. can I just say thank you and then let you know? Because it embarrasses them,” Johnson said.
Her father died when she was 13, and she borrowed a male friend’s name to get her first job delivering papers in Waterford at a time when girls weren’t being hired. The publisher searched for boys before calling her and saying she could do it under an assumed name to get around the no-girls rule.
5 THINGS
You didn't know about Ruth Johnson:
• At 44, she was the oldest person to give birth while serving in office in Michigan. Her daughter is 15 now.
• She loves to kayak, and two years ago went out for her birthday on Jan. 8. As long as she can navigate the ice, she’s up for the sport.
• Her favorite Detroit Tiger is Miguel Cabrera.
• Now known for her motorcycle riding, she actually got started on a Honda 50 she used to deliver papers as a kid. She bought it with babysitting money.
• She grew up largely below the poverty line in a house that started at 400 square feet, though her parents added on when they had money.
She was working for $1.10 an hour at a local burger joint when “I was slinging fries in the back one day and I thought ‘I’m going to college.’ That was a defining moment,” Johnson said.
She went to college for teaching, but ended up buying a print shop. She got involved in local politics by printing flyers to rally a community against an industrial site that could have contaminated the groundwater. After county positions and time in the state legislature, she was elected as Secretary of State in 2010.
As Secretary of State, she started Express SOS, a website that allows users to complete some services entirely online and speeds up others. The website also now automatically updates your voter registration when you change the address on your driver’s license.
“We’ve made it so much easier, I think, for people to get service,” Johnson said.
She faces Democratic challenger Godfrey Dillard in the Nov. 4 election. If she wins, term limits dictate this will be her final term as SOS.
• Related: See a profile of Democratic challenger Godfrey Dillard.
During her first term, Johnson face a unique election situation: Her office caught a sitting congressman and fellow Republican, former U.S. Rep. Thad McCotter, submitting fake petition signatures.
“I used to own a print shop so I figured if they were bogus that I would be able to tell because I’d seen many things come through the print shop. So I asked to see them personally because of course when you say a sitting congressman or anyone can’t be on the ballot, it’s serious. And there was just absolutely no doubt what we had to do,” Johnson said.
She called him 10 minutes before the news broke to give him a heads up, and described his reaction as “shocked.” She would do that for anyone, she said.
Also on the election side, she is proposing no-reason absentee voting as a way to cut lines at voting polls. Ballots have to be prepared 45 days ahead of the election for the military, and she supports opening up absentee voting for everybody during that time.
States that have early voting still have long lines, Johnson said, but no-reason absentee would allow a longer period and no lines.
Looking forward, she’s working on things like fixing the quality voter file, increasing the state’s registered organ donors and expanding the department’s efforts to combat insurance fraud during the car registration process.
Emily Lawler is a Capital/Lansing business reporter for MLive. You can reach her at elawler@mlive.com, subscribe to her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter: @emilyjanelawler.