GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck explains that security and election safety is their number one priority when it comes to elections, no matter the year.
"I think it's really important for voters to know that you know, the system is secure, the system is maintained in such a way that no voter could ever be issued more than one ballot," said Roebuck.
So much so, Roebuck said, it takes longer for Absentee Ballots to be processed than normal "at-the-polls" ballots...
"It's so important to know that the process of actually counting absentee ballots takes longer than counting ballots in the precinct," said Roebuck.
As of this week, Ottawa County has sent out 53,000 absentee ballots for the 2022 Midterm Election.
To help speed the process up, the Michigan Legislature as of 2022 approved municipalities with populations of at least 10,000 to remove absentee ballots from their outer envelopes on the Sunday before an election, but they must still keep their secrecy sleeves, or event count those votes until 7 a.m. on election day.
Roebuck explains more of the process Absentee ballots must take during election day.
"The absentee counting board, election workers are looking at the ballot number on the envelope, making sure that that ballot number is the same one that's issued to the voter inside the envelope, making sure the voters name is checked off the list, doing those signature verification steps as well. And then we're opening the envelope, flattening out the ballot going through the process of actually tabulating the ballot."
Also seeing high absentee voter turnouts, Kent County has issued over 112,000 absentee ballots with over 39,000 returned.
Nov. 8 looking to be a busy day for County Clerks across West Michigan, Roebuck reiterated elections in West Michigan are safe.
"Election Officials across the country have been preparing for November 8th for many many months and I believe strongly that voters can trust the outcome," Roebuck.
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