GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — According to numbers released by the Michigan Secretary of State on Thursday, more than 2.1 million people have already requested to vote absentee in the November election, a
Even as more absentee ballots are requested and returned, election workers face the potential for result delays. That’s because current Michigan law allows absentee ballots to be checked only beginning at 7 a.m. Election Day.
Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck listed of the initial processing that must done for each individual ballot, “Verifying the voter’s name on the ballot matches the poll list, the ballot number matches the poll list that’s on the envelope and the ballot number that’s on the detachable stub matches the envelope as well. Then opening the envelope, flattening the ballot out and getting it ready for processing and putting it through a tabulator. That’s at minimum about 45 seconds, and when you think about that extrapolated over thousands and thousands of ballots, it is a math problem. It’s a math equation.”
A bill currently addressing the issue of delays in processing absentee ballots has garnered legislative response in Lansing. The most relevant legislation is Senate Bill 757, introduced by Sen. Ruth Johnson, R-Groveland Township, earlier this year.
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