LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — State Secretary Jocelyn Benson is reminding Michigan voters of some important tips to consider when voting.
The next Michigan election will take place on Tuesday, August 4. Voters will have until 8 p.m. to get their ballots returned in order to qualify.
At a press conference Wednesday, Benson addressed fears over the safety of mail-in ballots.
“For the past 19 months my administration has worked in partnership with local clerks and national experts to strengthen and modernize our elections system to meet the mandate of the voters,” Benson said. “That work has continued even in the midst of a pandemic, and our collective efforts have made it easier to vote and harder to cheat in Michigan.”
Improvements and actions carried out by Benson’s administration include the following:
- Implementing automatic voter registration and online voter registration
- Ensuring all voters were informed of their new right to vote from home and provided an absent voter application
- Launching an online absent voter ballot application
- Expanding options for voters with disabilities to cast absent-voter ballots at home and in clerk offices
- Joining the Electronic Registration Information Center to improve the integrity of the state voter registration list
- Hiring the state’s first election security expert
- Ensuring safe in-person voting by providing all election jurisdictions with personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies and protocols for hygiene and social distancing
- Redesigning ballot envelopes to USPS specifications and providing ballot drop boxes, and additional supplies to election jurisdictions
- Recruiting more than 5,000 election workers through the Democracy MVP campaign
“These are truly unprecedented times, yet our clerks, the Bureau of Elections and my administration have all worked tirelessly to ensure voting rights are protected,” Benson said. “No matter how you choose to vote next week and in November, know that our elections are secure, you will be safe, and your ballot will be counted.”
With that being said, Benson says that anyone who hasn’t dropped their absentee ballot in the mail by this point should instead take it directly to their local Clerk’s office, or to their local ballot drop box.
This close to the Primary election, Benson says that ballots sent in may not be received in time to be counted, which is why they should be returned in a local drop box. This election will also help decide where to install additional drop boxes in more areas as needed.
Furthermore, Benson said that due to a massive influx of absentee ballots, delays should be expected in announcing a final count.
For this election, the amount of absentee ballots requested have skyrocketed, with returned ballots clocking in at over 900,000. This is a massive increase to four years ago, which clocked in at just over 307,000 absentee ballots returned.
She said that it may be delayed by as much as two days.
For further information and tips on how to vote in this election, see coverage from WKZO at this link.
