GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — On Monday qualifying jurisdictions in Michigan for the first time ever before Election Day were pre-processing absentee ballots.
Public Act 177, which passed the Legislature in September and was signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last month allows the state 10-hour window for early processing. Under the law, municipalities with more than 25,000 residents can complete security checks that must happen before an absentee ballot is actually counted on Election Day.
More than 52,000 absentee ballots in Grand Rapids were returned in time to be included in pre-processing at DeVos Place. The same exhibit hall will be used to tabulate absentee ballots for the city Tuesday.
Grand Rapids City Clerk Joel Hondorp told News 8 Monday, “This is great, so I’m hoping all my other fellow clerks around the state who are using this process can give some good feedback to the Legislature because this would be great if we can get this permanently into law.”
As of Monday morning in Kent County as a whole, 188,961 absentee ballots had been returned out of 221,367 issued. The Kent County Clerk said 68,967 absentee ballots were cast in the 2016 election while 97,846 were cast in August for the primary.
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