Michigan’s August primary election is Tuesday but Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson already has her sights set on November.
In a press call on Wednesday, the Secretary called for election reforms including allowing election workers to start processing absentee ballots before election day.
Benson noted she has been calling for the change for over a year and the increase in voting by mail has put added pressure on clerks to process ballots all at once.
“As the pandemic shows no signs of abating and the number of citizens seeking to vote by mail is higher than ever before in our state’s history continued inaction by lawmakers when we need their support and partnership now more than ever will equate to a dereliction of duty.”
Benson said in the last 19 months as her team has worked to improve the state’s elections, the legislature has passed only one piece of election-related legislation. She said there are other reforms she’d like to see.
“The second is allowing ballots that are mailed in and postmarked by election day to be counted if they are received within a few days of election day. Finally, we want to see the electronic return of ballots for military and overseas voters including military spouses and their dependents.”
Some 900-thousand absentee ballots have already been returned - roughly three times as many as were submitted ahead of the 2016 August primary.
Benson said for the August primary and especially for the November election, results may take longer to come in.
Republican lawmakers did not respond to our request for comment.