MI Right to Vote: Keep Michigan Absentee Ballot Voting Secure
The Promote the Vote proposal wants a forever absentee ballot sign up option, which could result in 1000's of blank (live) ballots being sent to wrong address across Michigan.
Promote the Vote: Forever Absentee Ballot Sign up
Promote the Vote proposes a one time, forever sign up to receive an absentee ballot for every election.
In our current system the voter no longer resides at that address, a misdelivered application won’t cause any harm. It is just an application.
But having a blank absentee ballot sent to a place where someone new resides creates an opportunity to commit voter fraud and provides ammunition to those looking to perpetuate claims of voter fraud. A significant number of absentee ballots would be sent to voters who have moved or died.
The average number of Michigan residents who move every year is approximately 1,380,000, or 13.8%.
While some voters might take advantage of updating their address in the registration records by going online to the Secretary of State’s website or to the office of their local Clerk, many more will not.
Renters and low income voters move more often.
Approximately, 54% of Detroit’s residents are renters, making them more likely to move and miss that blank ballot sent to their previous address.
How to Request and Return a Michigan Absentee Ballot:
The current system for receiving an absentee ballot is to fill out an application for every election or election cycle.
This ensures that no ballots will be sent out to the wrong address. You can even request to be put on the permanent absentee ballot application list to receive an application ahead of each election.
Three ways to apply to receive your ballot:
1) Download and print out your absentee ballot application.
2) Now you can even apply to receive your absentee ballot online.
3) Apply in person at your City or town clerk’s office.
An application will be sent to you 75 days ahead of when absentee ballots are sent out, which is 40 days before Election Day.
Applications can be sent by mail in a self addressed envelope provided, handed to the city clerk during business hours, or placed town city drop boxes for 24/7 drop off.
Many Michigan Cities in 2020 have even put in additional drop boxes locations throughout their cities for greater convenience.
Find the drop boxes in your area here https://mvic.sos.state.mi.us/Voter/Index/#yourclerk.
Searching for a box by your address or by county.
Most towns and voter jurisdictions in Michigan are small and will will only have one drop box. Large voting jurisdictions will have more.
Our Right to Vote proposal will create a standard for these larger jurisdictions to have 1 drop box for every 15,000 registered voters.
For example large jurisdictions like Detroit with 500,000 registered voters will have 30 to 35 drop boxes. Currently Detroit only lists 21 drop boxes on the City of Detroit Clerk page.
