GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Security and integrity have been a hot topic in election talk for years, as clerks, officials and experts have worked hard and fast to make sure disinformation can be countered and elections can be trusted.
And one of the ideas brought up by some in recent years has been the addition of watermarks to official ballots.
"It's an added security feature where there's an imprint on the fibers of our ballots, where, when you hold it up to the light, you can see that imprint, and it will say, you know, 'official ballot,'" Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons said.
In its own effort to ensure trust in one of the most populous and battleground regions in the state, it's something Kent County is now aiming to put in place for the November election.
"Our elections have many checks and balances throughout the whole process," said Posthumus Lyons.
"A ballot isn't simply just a photocopy of a paper," she continued. "It's something that we work with programming to make sure the ballots are programmed to be tabulated correctly. So, ballots are, you know, they're on official stock, and we want to make sure that the voters have an opportunity to really sense that and feel that and know that. That's why we're introducing watermarks on the ballots for the first time coming up this November election."
Posthumus Lyons said it was a decision based on a number of things, but it was also something the public brought to their attention.
"We did hear in our conversations with the public that watermarking would be something that they'd like to see," she said.
According to Posthumus Lyons, it's about one extra cent per ballot to watermark the roughly 600,000 the county will print, for a total of just about $6,000 for the measure.
She believes it's worth it.
"That's a very worthy expenditure to make when we're talking about the public trust in the process, and when we're talking about ensuring security and integrity," Posthumus Lyons said.
And as another highly-anticipated election approaches, this clerk is hoping to do what she can to uphold the democratic cornerstone she oversees.
"I just want to do everything we can to give the public confidence in this process and the outcome of their election," Posthumus Lyons said. "And if we can put watermarks on our ballots so the voters can ensure that those are official ballots that they are casting their votes on, that's, I think, a very good thing."
Next week, Posthumus Lyons explained, the elections commission will meet to determine approval of ballots before the first batches are sent out to overseas military on Sept. 21.