Name: It could take days to count Michigan absentee ballots, get election results, Benson warns
Brand: freep.com
SKU: freep-com-272
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

It could take days to count Michigan absentee ballots, get election results, Benson warns

preview

Detroit Free Press People should not expect election results the moment the polls close on Tuesday, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson warned during a Wednesday news conference.&nbsp;The unprecedented&nbsp;large participation in mail-in voting amidst the coronavirus pandemic and a state law that mandates when these&nbsp;ballots can be counted means final vote tallies may not be ready for days.&nbsp;"It very well may take several more days to get the final total for all of the elections," Benson said during a virtual news conference.&nbsp;"It's going to take more time, unless something changes with the law in the next few days. All data would suggest that we're talking about at least&nbsp;one or two days before we get the results in most races in our August primary."&nbsp;More:More:Under state law, Michigan elections officials may not open absentee ballot envelopes until the morning of Election Day. This means clerks can't prepare, let alone count, thousands of votes even though they've already received the ballots.&nbsp;Benson's critique of the absentee voting law is not new. Clerks and advocates from both parties believe election workers should have the capacity to start counting absentee ballots earlier,&nbsp;or at least the ability to prepare the ballots to be counted before Election Day.&nbsp;&nbsp;The secretary acknowledged the likely delays as something of a warning. She believes bad actors will&nbsp;point to a counting process that drags on as evidence of inaccurate results.&nbsp;"Various actors will try to attempt to spread false information about the integrity and security of our systems&nbsp;that are intended to mislead voters about their rights and sow seeds of doubt among the electorate about the accuracy of the results of our elections," Benson said.&nbsp;"We cannot let them carry the day."&nbsp;Despite these concerns and the anticipated counting challenges, Benson said the state is ready for the primary election. She pointed to efforts from her office to ensure clerks have the technology and training to count ballots&nbsp;and keep workers and voters safe.&nbsp;The office spent $2 million in federal funds on personal protective equipment — like masks, face shields and gloves — that it sent to clerks around the state. Benson also said her office created an online absentee ballot application, enrolled in a national effort to remove duplicates from state voter files and recruited more than 5,000 poll workers.&nbsp;"This year's elections are taking place with new mandates from voters and amidst a health and economic crisis unlike anything we've experienced before," Benson said."Simply put, even adjusting for these unexpected realities, our collective efforts have made it easier to vote and harder to cheat in Michigan."&nbsp;The secretary&nbsp;repeated calls for voters to cast their ballots early or otherwise avoid polling places during the times when they are typically the most crowded — early in the morning and late in the day.&nbsp;So far, almost 2 million people in Michigan have requested absentee ballots. As of this week, about 900,000 had&nbsp;returned their ballots.In May, Benson in the state. The move garnered praise from voting rights advocates, but also some pushback.More:More:Senate Elections Committee Chairwoman Ruth Johnson, R-Holly, repeated those concerns during a hearing with Benson on Wednesday.Johnson, who previously served as secretary of state, said Benson's use of the qualified voter file — a list of people who've registered to vote in the state and at one point were deemed eligible — as a mailing list was inappropriate.&nbsp;She said she had heard from many people who've received ballot applications at their homes for relatives who are dead or no longer live in the state.&nbsp;"I don’t believe it should be used as a mailing list for absentee ballot mailing requests," Johnson said.&nbsp;“This isn’t a partisan issue at all. It’s an issue of integrity.”&nbsp;On Wednesday, Benson acknowledged some of the critiques of her effort. In addition to getting absentee applications to all voters, she said there was a "secondary goal" of identifying any inaccuracies in the state's voting rolls. She said she's committed to improving the accuracy of the list, but pointed to the huge increase in absentee ballot participation as evidence her efforts were effective and worthwhile.&nbsp;Earlier this year,&nbsp;President Donald Trump and other Republicans accused the secretary of trying to inappropriately impact the election, but many of their claims incorrectly assumed Benson mailed out actual absentee ballots. Her office sent applications to voters, a practice both political parties, local clerks and nonprofits regularly engage in.&nbsp;During the hearing, Benson also called for additional legislative changes, asking&nbsp;lawmakers to allow clerks to count absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day.&nbsp;After a legal battle, clerks did not have to count absentee ballots that were postmarked before Election Day but were not received until after the polls closed.&nbsp;That means only those ballots received by 8 p.m. on Election Day will count. Instead of mailing the ballots, people can take them to drop boxes or to their local clerk's office. Absentee ballots can be requested until 4 p.m. on the day before the election.&nbsp;Polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday.Contact Dave Boucher at dboucher@freepress.com or 313-938-4591. Follow him on Twitter .

Detroit Free Press People should not expect election results the moment the polls close on Tuesday, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson warned during a Wednesday news conference.&nbsp;The unprecedented&nbsp;large participation in mail-in voting amidst the coronavirus pandemic and a state law that mandates when these&nbsp;ballots can be counted means final vote tallies may not be ready for days.&nbsp;"It very well may take several more days to get the final total for all of the elections," Benson said during a virtual news conference.&nbsp;"It's going to take more time, unless something...

public

Dave Boucher

The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primarily serves Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston, Washtenaw, and Monroe counties.  The Free Press is also the largest city newspaper owned by Gannett, which also publishes USA Today. The Free Press has received ten Pulitzer Prizes and four Emmy Awards. Its motto is "On Guard for 189 Years".

It could take days to count Michigan absentee ballots, get election results, Benson warns

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS