OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — A 5-hour-long Ottawa County Commission meeting on Tuesday was filled with public comment and discussion surrounding the 2024 budget.
However, what really dominated was a conversation over how to implement early voting in the county; and before we get into what happened on Tuesday, it's important to understand how we got here.
In November, Michigan voters weighed in on Proposal 2, which significantly changed how elections are run. It passed statewide, snagging 60 percent of the vote, but it did fail in Ottawa County– with 53.5 percent voting "no."
Prop 2 adds nine days of early voting, expands the number of drop boxes, creates a system of ballot tracking, and expands voter ID laws, among other changes. Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck says his office has been planning and preparing for these changes for months. He says conversations began even before Proposal 2 passed.
Then, starting in February, Clerk Roebuck and the 23 township clerks drafted a proposal laying out a brand new system of how early voting would work. Roebuck explains that legal approved the language in June, and on August 9, he sent the plan to the county commissioners for review.
Last Tuesday, September 5, the Ottawa County Finance and Administration Committee unanimously passed the early voting plan.
After that vote, Chairman Joe Moss moved to add a line that would allow the board to approve the locations of the four new early voting sites.
However, as Roebuck explained then, and reiterated to us on Tuesday, the county commission has no legal authority over elections. Their only role is to approve funding for the early voting plan.
This brings us to Tuesday, September 12th.
The plan's financing was expected to go up for a vote, but instead, Tuesday's agenda listed it as a discussion item, meaning no vote would take place. Commissioners spent an hour discussing potential changes, like requiring the use of watermarked ballots.
It's something Roebuck supports, but says he isn't sure they could acquire enough of the proper paper stock required.
"I think it's important to add features like watermarking, which is great technology," says Roebuck, "It's super easy for a voter to look at a ballot and say, 'Oh, yeah, this is an official ballot,' and that's great. So we're going to work hard to implement whatever security pieces that we can."
The clerk's office is required by the state to submit their early voting plan to the county by September 30.
After that, they must submit the final approved plan to the state by October 31.
The next board of commissioners meeting is September 26, four days before the September 30 deadline.
Roebuck says he does not think there are any consequences to missing those deadlines, but it would set the clerk's office and their preparations back significantly — with several major elections to prepare for next year.
During Tuesday's public comment, several township clerks that worked on this agreement stepped up to the mic, urging the Board of Commissioners to pass the plan.
"I think what is nerve racking for most local clerks, who are planners, and election administrators, [who] are planners, and our local clerks — are concerned that at this late date, making changes to the agreement, or obviously, approving the agreement, creates chaos, essentially, in the process of preparing for what we have to do next year," says Roebuck.
