Only 530 people had voted early in-person by Thursday afternoon in Kalamazoo County. By contrast, the clerk had received 23,960 absentee ballots.
In Cass County, 178 people had voted early and 6,375 mailed in absentee ballots.
Monica McMichael is the Cass County Clerk. She said mail-in absentee voting was important during the pandemic. Now she’d like that to change.
“Absentee voting is very expensive,” McMichael said.
That is because the clerk’s office, using taxpayer dollars, pays the postage to send out the ballot. It also pays for the return postage and a secrecy sleeve, with envelope, so voters can mail it back.
“We would love to see more folks come out and vote early. It's efficient. There are no lines. It's been very slow, so we would love to see them come out," McMichael said.
From McMichael’s description, the early voting experience is similar to Election Day voting – without the long lines.
“Early voting, you go into the precinct, vote your ballot and you're able to put it in a tabulator yourself at the same time.”
McMichael said that’s important to many voters. But she said the tabulator results won’t be generated until after the polls close on Tuesday.
As for the large number of absentee ballots that have been requested, McMichael said she’s concerned that the return rate isn't higher.
“I can tell you that the local clerks, almost all of them, have expressed to me concern over the fact that most of the absentee ballots they mailed out to voters have not been returned,” McMichael said.
On July 10, the Secretary of State’s Office announced that more than 1.5 million Michigan voters had requested absentee ballots for Tuesday’s primary election.
“So, if we could put out a message to voters to please return their absentee ballot. There are drop boxes, their clerks have to be in the office this weekend,” McMichael said.
“At this point, I would not trust placing it in the mail and having it arrive before Election Day.”
Voters can put absentee ballots in drop boxes or return them to their local clerk’s office until the polls close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
Early voting ends Sunday. To find out where to vote early, go to Michigan.gov/Vote.
Citizens can still register and vote on Monday and Tuesday at the city or township clerk’s office.
