CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — As voters across metro Detroit begin showing up to the polls early, absentee ballots are quickly piling up.
"I like this because sometimes, you don’t know some of the information and this way, you can take time and read it," Beth Goyt said as she showed up to the Clinton Township Clerk's Office to drop off her ballot Wednesday.
Goyt is one of the nearly 25,000 voters expected to return absentee ballots in Clinton Township this election.
Tasked with counting all of those votes are clerks like Kim Meltzer. Meltzer has been the clerk in Clinton Township for years and says about 50% of the 25,000 absentee ballots they’ve sent out have already been returned.
"We are very busy at this time as you can imagine everybody is," Meltzer said.
When it comes to getting results on Election Day, Meltzer's hopeful an amended Michigan law that took effect in 2024 that allows clerks to preprocess and tabulate absentee ballots will ensure faster results when polls close on Nov. 5.
Preprocessing is a system where clerks are able to take all the steps they would normally to process a ballot and feed it into a tabulator ahead of time. This process is permitted for a few days before the election takes place. However, they are not given results until polls close on Election Day.
"I think it’s an opportunity for clerks and we actually practiced the process in the February primary, the presidential primary, as well as the August primary, so we were ready to go. This is a big election. We wanted to practice, if you will," Meltzer said.
While some clerks are taking advantage of the newly changed law, there are now growing concerns of delayed results for clerks foregoing preprocessing. In Warren, City Clerk Sonja Buffa has faced criticism as county leaders are concerned not processing absentee ballots ahead of time will result in delayed election results.
Watch our previous report where the Macomb County Ccerk explains the situation in Warren below:
Buffa sent the following statement to the 7 News Detroit newsroom:
I have been administering elections for 24 years and my staff has always demonstrated accuracy and precision with elections. Accuracy is the number one priority for me, and then speed is second. It is for these reasons that I have chosen not to pre-process.
First, it actually would take more time to pre-process absentee votes for eight days given the extra people needed, the time it takes, the storage necessitated, and the compiling afterwards, than one full day of counting.
Next, pre-processing is not mandated for clerks. The legislature could have easily mandated pre-processing, but they chose to make it optional.
And finally, up to eight days of pre-processing opens the door for results to get leaked or compromised. I will not risk compromising the integrity of the election.
I also want the results quickly and we are committed to accomplishing that task in addition to keeping the election accurate, safe and secure. WE CAN DO THIS!
I hope that the scrutiny this office is getting will not discourage the general public from voting. As always, thank you for voting.
Sonja Buffa
City Clerk
Warren
Michael Siegrist is the clerk in Canton Township. He says his office chose not to preprocess in the 2022 election but will take advantage this go-round.
"There’s no more hurry up and wait and it’s helpful because, again, observers on the outside, they equate speed with accuracy. And so a lot of times when you don’t get those election results to the impatient folks who are ready for those results, they begin to fill that vacuum with lots of mis- and disinformation, which can erode the trust in the election system," Siegrist said. "The law changed. The law in 2022 allowed us to open up the absentee ballots and look at the ballot stub, but it didn’t allow us to remove the stub and actually tabulate the ballot."
Voters say they’re just looking forward to seeing who the next leader of the country will be.
"Hopefully, the person you want will win and this fighting and bickering will be done," Goyt said.
There is still time for voters interested in absentee voting to obtain a ballot. Clerks recommend reaching out to them directly or picking up a ballot in person and returning it by hand to a ballot box to ensure it gets there safely.
