Whitmer signs election law changes including ballot preprocessing

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law Friday legislation that would allow Michigan's election officials to carry out the initial steps of processing absentee ballots before Election Day without counting any votes. But some clerks say that the proposal that emerged from negotiations between Whitmer and GOP state lawmakers won't help them handle the large volume of absentee ballots on Election Day and expedite election night returns.

"They missed the mark. They missed the mark entirely," said Canton Township Clerk Michael Siegrist, who does not plan to preprocess absentee ballots before Election Day.

While election officials in Detroit ? Michigan's largest voting jurisdiction ? plan to preprocess absentee ballots before Election Day, those in other large municipalities ? including Livonia and Sterling Heights ? said they'll skip it.

Whitmer's office wrote in a news release touting the legislation that clerks who don't use preprocessing this year "will be able to take advantage of this law and speed up election results in future election cycles."

The bill signed by Whitmer gives election officials in communities home to at least 10,000 residents from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. the Sunday and Monday preceding the election to open the return envelopes containing absentee ballots and check that the number on the stub attached to the ballot matches the number on the envelope. Clerks cannot remove absentee ballots from the secrecy sleeve or tabulate them.

"Honestly, to open envelopes, take them out of the envelope and leave them in the secrecy sleeve doesn't do much to eliminate time," said Livonia City Clerk Susan Nash.

Siegrist said that "the bottleneck occurs at the scanning, at the tabulation of the ballot, the counting of the actual vote."

Daniel Baxter, who oversees absentee ballot processing in Detroit, told the Free Press Monday that city election officials have received over 70,000 applications for absentee ballots so far. He called the volume of requests unprecedented for a gubernatorial election and estimates that election workers in the city could process close to 100,000 absentee ballots.

"The best remedy to deal with these types of numbers... is having the ability to actually tabulate the absentee ballots," he said. "That's where Michigan needs to go."

More:Lawmakers pass series of election bills following negotiations on preprocessing ballots

More:Absentee ballots now available in Michigan: Here's how to request, return one

During the 2020 presidential election, unofficial election night results showed then-President Donald Trump ahead of now-President Joe Biden. But the unofficial count on election night did not include thousands of absentee votes.

Shortly after 9 a.m. the day after the election, Biden pulled ahead of Trump for the first time after polls closed the previous evening. In advance of the election, experts warned of a so-called "red mirage" on election night. Because Trump encouraged his supporters to vote in person, their votes would be reported first while absentee ballots, which take longer to process, would follow.

In a statement, Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said voters in Michigan "deserve to get their election results on election night."

"It remains to be seen whether an extra two days is sufficient to accomplish this goal, as data and best practices universally recommend at least seven days," she said.

Some Michigan clerks said that during preprocessing, they would like to be able to remove ballots from the secrecy sleeve, flatten them and compile them in batches ? completing additional necessary steps before tabulating ballots, which they say would make the tabulation process more efficient. Some have said they would like to run ballots through the tabulators either during the days leading up to the election or before the polls open.

Former Michigan elections director Chris Thomas called it a "huge mistake" to not allow tabulation during ballot preprocessing. A majority of states allow ballots to be scanned into tabulators before Election Day, according to an analysis from the Bipartisan Policy Center.

"If the Legislature really wants to avoid all the consternation created from the 'red mirage' in 2020, they would adopt the same process the blue, red and purple state have enacted," Thomas wrote in an email before state lawmakers passed the preprocessing bills.

Lawmakers in the GOP-led Legislature tacked on additional election changes to the preprocessing legislation.

The bill requires election workers picking up absentee ballots from drop boxes to immediately return them to the clerk's office and it requires clerks to maintain a log that notes the total number of ballots collected when a representative from their office picks up absentee ballots from drop boxes. It also empowers county clerks ? who maintain death records ? to initiate the cancellation of dead voters from the rolls.

Lawmakers also tied the preprocessing measure to separate bills allowing active duty military members to return their ballots electronically starting in 2024. Whitmer also signed that legislation Friday.

In a statement, Whitmer heralded the legislation as "expanding voting access for Michiganders who are serving our nation in uniform."

But Benson said the legislation doesn't go far enough. Michigan's chief elections officer said in a statement that "by unnecessarily excluding military spouses and dependents serving our country overseas from electronic ballot return, the package expands voting rights for some while needlessly discriminating against other members of the military community who serve, sacrifice, and deserve our support."

Voters across Michigan have begun returning absentee ballots. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 8.

Clara Hendrickson fact-checks Michigan issues and politics as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support her work at bit.ly/freepRFA. Contact her at [email protected] or 313-296-5743. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Whitmer signs ballot preprocessing bill criticized by some clerks