County and city clerks bracing to count record number of absentee ballots

by:Joe LaFurgey

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Area clerks say Tuesday’s primary election will be the biggest test so far for absentee voting in Michigan.

So far, a record number of absentee ballots have been issued in Kent County alone.

Voters in Michigan paved the way for no-reason absentee balloting in 2018 and COVID-19 has convinced more and more voters to send in their vote ahead of time.

Officials with the Kent County Clerk’s Office issued an 127,000 absentee ballots for Tuesday’s primary. As of Monday, 73,000 had been returned. That includes the 35,000 ballots sent to Grand Rapids city voters. Of those, 22,000 have been returned, a rate of about 60%

Grand Rapids City Clerk Joel Hondorp noted, “We kind of saw that in March. We kind of saw that in the municipal elections, too — a larger falloff of absentee ballots returned."

Area city and township clerk’s offices have set up drop boxes for those who haven’t already sent in their ballots

State law allows election officials to begin counting absentee ballots when in-person polls open up at 7 a.m. on election day.

Anyone in the room while votes are tallied, from election workers to poll watchers, is sequestered until the polls close.

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