The MCFN and Bridge are not naming other officials on the list because their attendance could not be independently confirmed. We will update this report if and when their names are verified.

Other details also remain less than clear. Some lawmakers said they paid their own way, or for part of the trip, but their accounts could not be confirmed. Also unconfirmed is how many lawmakers or staff brought a spouse or guest. Spouses were responsible for their own travel expenses, according to one document obtained as part of the investigation.

Chatfield, who is expected to be the next House speaker if Republicans maintain control of the chamber, confirmed his own attendance, noting that he and his wife scheduled a 10-year anniversary trip in Hawaii prior to the seminar.

“I attended the legislative briefing and paid my own way,” he said.

As for the Puerto Rico seminar in spring 2017, House Elections and Ethics Chair Aaron Miller, of Sturgis, and Meekhof, the Senate Majority Leader from West Olive, both attended. Miller first confirmed his attendance to Gongwer News Service; Meekhof, through a spokesperson, confirmed going to Puerto Rico.

One lawmaker, who declined to be identified citing a fear of retaliation, said the trip didn’t influence him in any way. He and some others said they ended up supporting the popular vote compact.

Rep. Victory, of Hudsonville, said he had nothing to hide, calling the Hawaii seminar an “informative conference.” He noted that it took place outside of prime tourist season in Hawaii, which might have made the locale less expensive than had it taken place in the continental United States.

Michigan laws weak on disclosure

Under Michigan law, registered lobbyists (not lawmakers) are required to report when they take lawmakers on trips valued at more than $800. The Hawaii and Puerto Rico trips do not fall under that law because they were paid for by the Institute, the educational charity, and not its lobbying arm.

Michigan is the only state with a full-time Legislature that doesn’t require lawmakers to file personal disclosure forms about their personal financial interests. In some states, including Ohio and Wisconsin, these disclosure forms require lawmakers themselves to reveal free trips they benefited from during the year.

Michigan’s patchwork of ethics and disclosure laws earned the state an “F” in government ethics and transparency in 2015 from the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington D.C. nonprofit and news organization.

“When lawmakers or any government official has travel expenses paid for by non-government entities, it should be disclosed,” said Jenny Flanagan, vice president for state operations for Common Cause, a Washington D.C. nonprofit that advocates government reform.

“Outside groups can provide important information and these trips can be really beneficial, but disclosing them allows the public to remove any question of impropriety, particularly when these trainings take place in beautiful locations that can raise a flag.”

Common Cause, often identified with liberal causes, supports the national movement to award the presidential election to the winner of the popular vote, Flanagan said, but was not involved in the Hawaii trip or with the Institute for Research on Presidential Elections.

Rules on public officials accepting (and disclosing) money for travel vary significantly nationwide. Hawaii itself bans lawmakers from accepting trips “in which it can reasonably be inferred that the gift is intended to influence the legislator or employee in the performance of the legislator's or employee's official duties,” according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Out-of-state junkets and seminars for lawmakers aren’t altogether uncommon, said Kytja Weir, state politics editor of the Center for Public Integrity. And they can be very effective.

The Center for Public Integrity this year published an investigation that found that legislators from 27 states proposed bills calling for a new national constitutional convention after two Tea Party-related nonprofits paid $130,000 to fly 120 lawmakers nationwide to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, for a mock constitutional convention, complete with historical re-enactors.

“Transparency is quite important,” said Oguzhan Dincer, a professor of economics at Illinois State University and director for the Institute of Corruption Studies, which is publishing a study next week on the public’s perception of corruption in state governments.

“Anything special interest groups do for state legislators should be out in the open,” Dincer said, “so the public can decide whether it is for the benefit of the public or themselves, the special interest group.”