GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Ahead of Thursday’s deadline prescribed by state law to make absentee ballots available to voters, some counties have already started the process of mailing absentee ballots to voters who requested them.
Beginning Thursday, September 29th, absentee ballots must be available to the public in keeping with a state law that requires that to be the case no later than 40-days prior to an election.
In Kent County, election workers were busy Tuesday stuffing ballots in envelopes that will end up in the mailboxes of eligible voters.
“Michigan doesn’t just send absentee ballots out,” said Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus-Lyons. “A voter has to send a signed application in to get their ballot.”
There are a number of ways to request an absentee ballot. Voters can fill out a request form online by visiting the Michigan Voter Information Center. You can fill out or download an application form on their website and either complete it there, or mail a hard copy to your local clerk’s office. You can also call your local clerk’s office to request an absentee ballot application or show up in person to vote absentee on-site. You can also pick up your ballot in person and drop it off at a later date.
If you do request a ballot by mail, expect it to be in your mailbox within 7-10 days after the request is made. The deadline to request an absentee ballot be sent to you by mail is the Friday prior to Election Day – that’s November 4th. You can request an absentee ballot in person until 4 p.m. on November 7th – the day before the election. Election officials discourage waiting too long, to ensure your ballot makes it to you with enough time for you to send it back to the clerk.
When it comes time to return your ballot, you can either mail it back to the clerk’s office, drop it off in person there, or bring it to the ballot drop box in your local jurisdiction all before polls close on Election Day. Be careful with your timing if you plan to mail your ballot back: post-marks do not count.
And for the application and the ballot, make sure you sign the return envelopes and have your license handy – clerks will compare your signature on both to the signature they have on file, the same one that appears on your state issued ID.
In 2018, Michigan voters approved a ballot initiative allowing residents of the state to cast ballots absentee for no reason. Two years later, the pandemic hit, making absentee voting not only convenient, but necessary for many in the state.
“It’s kind of leveling off a little bit post-pandemic,” said Posthumus-Lyons. “This last election in August we saw 50/50; half of our voters voted absentee, half of our voters showed up at the polls on election day. At the peak of the pandemic, we saw 70% of voters casting their ballots via absentee and that’s from four years ago in 2018, when we were at 28% absentee voting. So there’s definitely a lot more demand.”
Michigan law bans clerks from counting absentee ballots prior to the close of polls on Election Day. That means full totals likely won’t be available the same night as Election Day. On Tuesday, Posthumus-Lyons assured the process is both safe and transparent.
“It should be easy to vote, but hard to cheat, and you have to find that balance between convenience and ease, and security and integrity,” she said. “When we canvass our election results, we make sure that the ballots counted, match the number of ballots that were issued, and we make sure that the election results in these tapes match the results that were reported. Those checks and balances are really important to give voters that confidence.”
To track your ballot in Kent County, go to KentCountyVotes.com.
