GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — This November, election results may not come on election night.
This is largely due to absentee voting. Michigan expanded its absentee voting in 2018, allowing no reason for requesting an absentee ballot. Previously, absentee voters had to be at least 60 years old, be out of town when the polls are open or be unable to vote on Election Day due to a physical disability, religious tenets or incarceration.
Now, in Kent County, more than 116,600 absentee ballots have been sent out. At this time, a little more than 54,000 have been returned, about a 46% return rate. Normally, Kent County sees return rates in the 90% range, according to clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons. So, they expect many more in the days ahead.
However, it's tough to compare the number of absentee ballot requests this year to previous elections. It is much higher than the last gubernatorial election in 2018, which Kent County issued 67,000 absentee ballots. However, this was prior to the legislation change to allow for no reason required.
"If we want to look at trends comparative to 2020," said Posthumus Lyons, "in that November election, we issued 227,000 absentee ballots with 214,000 returned. So again, high 90% return rate. But that's also kind of difficult to compare, because we're in the middle of a pandemic that year."
It was also a presidential election year, often seeing much higher voter turnout.
Still, given the number of absentee ballots issued, Posthumus Lyons calls for patience from voters. It may take some time to tabulate all of those absentee ballots.
Michigan is not an early voting state. That means clerks cannot tabulate absentee ballots until Election Day.
"We want to set the expectation for voters that it does take time to count your ballots, and we cannot sacrifice security and integrity at the expense of speed," said Posthumus Lyons. "That's what we like to portray to our voters right out of the gate. I expect that we'll have our election results sometime on Wednesday."
In September, Michigan lawmakers passed legislation allowing absentee ballots to begin being processed two days before the Nov. 8 election. However, this still does not mean the votes will be counted early. This legislation allows municipalities with more than 10,000 people to remove the ballots from their outer envelopes, but they still would not remove secrecy sleeves or count the vote until Nov. 8 at 7 a.m. when polls open.
That same package of bills passed increased ballot drop box security. It requires a system for monitoring them, by requiring local clerks to visit and record how many ballots are coming out of them regularly close to election. Plus, it sets mandates on where the boxes are located, and how it is locked and sealed.
Because of the increased interest in absentee ballots and this latest legislation, Posthumus Lyons said you may see some ballot watchers near the boxes this election.
They are similar to poll watchers, but have no defined role. Individuals can observe the drop boxes, but they should not be engaging with the voter.
"We just want to make sure that everybody exercises their right," said Posthumus Lyons, "both to cast a ballot, free from harassment and intimidation as is their right by law, and and others have the right to observe and ensure the security and integrity of the elections."
RELATED VIDEO: Absentee voting is already underway in Michigan
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