LANSING, MI (WKZO/WHTC) -- There is a small problem with the upcoming Primary Election. Dozens of city and township clerks failed to get absentee ballots in the mail for overseas servicemen in the 45-day time period required. That may mean they may have to give the military personnel extra time to vote.

The City of Battle Creek, Comstock, Port Sheldon and South Haven Townships and about 70 others across the state have reported the failure and there may be others because 250 communities failed to report at all, including Clyde, Crockery, Gunplain, Hopkins, Lee, Martin, Tallmadge, Trowbridge, Wayland and Zeeland townships along the Lakeshore. It may not involve enough ballots to change the outcome of most elections, but it could.

Secretary of State Ruth Johnson says the US Dept. of Justice has suggested they might file a suit to force those communities to hold their final count until everyone has gotten a chance to vote.