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Michigan legislature sends elections deal to governor’s desk

Emma Winowiecki
/
Michigan Radio

After months of negotiating, the Michigan Legislature has reached a deal on election bills that would allow local clerks in municipalities with more than 10,000 residents to start pre-processing absentee ballots two days before an election.

That translates to letting clerks open return envelopes on absentee ballots. They could also verify ballot numbers on stubs that they use to double-check ballot counts. They would still be barred, however, from actually counting votes before polls open on Election Day.

Representative Ann Bollin (R-Brighton Twp) chairs the House Elections and Ethics Committee. She said reaching agreement on priorities was the hardest part of the negotiations.

“You want everybody to win something. But I think [what] motivated everybody is to really work to make sure we are protecting our voters and ensuring that our voters have access and ... restoring confidence, making sure we have good, solid voter rolls. This is just a start,” Bollin said ahead of voting on the measures Wednesday.

Critics say the compromise legislation doesn’t do enough to ensure clerks can fully pre-process absentee ballots before an election.

Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum noted the legislation doesn’t let local clerks remove secrecy envelopes. Combined with the time limitations, she worried fanfare around the bill package would set clerks up to be blamed if election results are not immediate.

“The Republican Legislature has failed to listen to election professionals. Certified — state certified and nationally certified, in many cases — election professionals in what we need to more efficiently and securely conduct our elections,” Byrum said.

The legislation also requires county clerks to scrub the deceased from their lists of registered voters at least monthly. Currently, county clerks send a list of voters who possibly died to local clerks to handle the work of removing them.

Cleaning up the voter rolls has been a large Republican talking point, with a March report from the state Auditor General finding some exceptions to the sufficient integrity of the state’s qualified voter file.

Copyright 2022 Michigan Radio. To see more, visit Michigan Radio.

Colin Jackson