(Source: MIRS.news, Published 01/24/2023) Nine days of early voting is coming to Michigan with passage of Proposal 2 and local clerks are asking legislators to do some legislative clean up to make the process run as smoothly as possible.
During a forum sponsored by Promote the Vote, the entity that orchestrated the passage of Proposal 2, three leaders among Michigan's clerks told legislators and their staff at least seven policy changes they'd like to see in state law.
Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, Lansing Clerk Chris Swope and Harrison Township Clerk Adam Wit at times reiterated each other's points during Tuesday's policy panel, which emphasized that follow-up legislation is still needed.
Noah Praetz, the former elections director in Cook County, told the panel that whatever amending language legislators come up with won't be perfect. Changes will be made over the next five to 10 years. The sooner the lawmakers get to work on it, the better.
"Looking back, I wish I had as much time as possible to implement that first election," he said.
Here are the seven reforms offered up by the clerks:
1. Funding. The clerks contend Proposal 2 requires the local officials be compensated for conducting the nine days of early voting. This is particularly an issue in small townships with quarter-time clerks and tiny budgets. Even if some of the costs can be shuffled around, Byrum said the election system has needed attention for years.
"Funding election administration was deemed a critical infrastructure many years ago, but you would not know that based on the funding that we have not received and the respect that election administrators have not received," Byrum said.
2. Precinct size. Michigan precincts can't be larger than 2,999 active registered voters, but if this size could be bumped up to 5,000, clerks could shift their staffing costs to handle the early voting crowd. Harrison Township clerk Adam Wit said he could cut his number of precincts by 30%, which means tabulators are cleared up to handle early voting.
3. Handling the ballots after they are cast. The easiest and most efficient answer is that the voter stick their ballots into an on-sight tabulator that is programmed not to kick out cumulative totals until after 8 p.m. on Election Day. Once the ballots are cast, the local clerks suggest they be sealed and stored after every day, but there's nothing in law that lays that out.
4. Absentee ballot tabulation. Clerks, in general, weren't impressed with the Legislature's last-minute absentee ballot pre-processing legislation in 2020 and 2022. For one, the bills marginally sped up the process. In some cases, clerks threw up their hands and opted not to do it.
Clerks argue that if early votes can be immediately tabulated on-site, so should absentee ballots.
4. Adjust the primary date. With nine days of early voting taken off the front end of Election Day and six days taken off the back end for overseas ballots, the time frame between the August primary and the November general election has gotten two weeks tighter.
Tabulators need to be tested. Ballots need to be printed. Training needs to be done.
"There is not enough time between the August primary and the November general election anymore under our current circumstances," Swope said.
The original idea was to move to a June primary date, but the schools are pushing for a May date so millage increases can get on the July property tax bills.
6. Dead voters. If an early voter casts a ballot on Friday, but dies on Tuesday, should that vote count? Currently, if an absentee voter casts a ballot on Monday before Election Day, clerks are required to fish out the dead person's ballot so they are not counted in the final totals. Once an early vote is tabulated, the ballot is not identifiable to the voter and can't be taken out.
7. "No wrong door" for voters confused over which municipality they live in. If an early voter shows up at the East Lansing City Clerk's office, for example, but he or she actually lives in Lansing Township, Swope is arguing that the East Lansing clerk should be able to give that person a ballot if the clerk has the ability to give the voter a proper ballot.
