LANSING, Mich. (MIRS News) – Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum says she’s projecting only one in 10 election officials will use Michigan’s reformed law allowing them to begin preprocessing absentee ballots the Sunday and Monday before Election Day.

“One in 10…maybe,” Byrum said on the MIRS Monday Podcast. “Clerks – they weren’t given enough time to schedule this. The preprocessing is not true preprocessing, so it doesn’t even go far enough. This is what happens when the Legislature refuses to listen to certified election experts.”

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During her last term as a state House member, which ended after 2012, Byrum was the ranking Democrat on the House Redistricting and Elections Committee.

Earlier this month, the Governor signed legislation authorizing clerks’ offices in communities with at least 10,000 residents to start opening return envelopes holding absentee ballots. However, election officials would remain barred from removing an absentee ballot from its secrecy sleeve or tabulating it until Election Day.

“This legislation only allows local city and township clerks to open the outer envelope, remove the contents and that’s it,” Byrum said. “It does not allow for the local clerk or their designee to match the ballot number issued to the ballot number received, remove the ballot stub, flatten the ballot or even put it through the tabulator…so this is not true preprocessing, and very few local clerks will be able to use this option.”

On Sept. 28, HB 4491 passed the Senate, 32-1, and the House, 99-5 (See “Absentee Pre-Processing Deal Passes Both Chambers,” 9/28/2022).

After the evening’s votes, Senate Majority Leader Mike SHIRKEY (R-Clarklake) told the media he’s never advocated for tabulating ballots before an election day, saying “I’m not ready for it to go there, yet.”

“I know some states do that, but I’m not ready to go there, yet,” Shirkey said, adding that he supported the legislation because “we know the wave of increased (absentee votes) is going to come” and “I think what was the only right thing to do is to give more time.”

He said he could have supported providing election officials more than two days to start seeing if the number on the stub attached to the ballot matches the number on the envelope, but it’s “the art of the possible.”

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Meanwhile, on the MIRS Monday Podcast, Byrum described the legislation as a last-minute action so lawmakers could say they delivered ballot preprocessing even though “this is not preprocessing and is certainly not enough.”

Also, during her interview, Byrum discussed how Ingham County, one of the 10 most populated counties in the state, is anticipating low voter turnout for the November 2022 election.

She said out of the 86,000 voters who’ve requested to be placed on a permanent absentee ballot application list, 54,000 have filled out those applications and submitted their requests as of last week.

Byrum said the concern could be explained away if there were a massive trend moving toward in-person voting, “but the August election shows us that’s not the case.”

“In Ingham County, 67% of the voters voted by absentee ballot,” Byrum said. “I am concerned that if this trend holds, that we may be at 45% voter turnout. So we’ll see what the numbers look like tomorrow, but I am concerned that we’re not going to see the turnout that is expected.”

The November 2020 election was the first major general election after Proposal 3 of 2018, “Promote the Vote,” enshrined widespread access to an absentee ballot into Michigan’s constitution. For this election, voter turnout in Ingham County was about 68%, according to Byrum.

“This is really starting to feel to me like 2016, and that is why I am raising the flag and letting people know that I’m not seeing the numbers – so people need to start requesting their absentee ballot now,” she said.

In 2016, voter turnout across the state was 63% for the presidential election between past President Donald Trump and then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. In Ingham County, less than 52% of voters showed up to their precincts and absentee voter turnout was less than 14% for precincts in the county.

The 2014 gubernatorial election, however, had nearly a 69% turnout in Ingham County although it was a reelection year for previous Gov. Rick Snyder.

Presently, groups like Common Cause Michigan – which is part of the larger Washington, D.C.-based government accountability organizations – is suggesting absentee voters submit their ballots by Oct. 25. Afterward, voters will be recommended to submit their ballots in-person or into a secure drop box if they’re voting absentee.

Another element being discussed ahead of the Nov. 8 election is the threat of hostility at the polls, especially from groups that vehemently denied the November 2020 presidential election results from Michigan.

When asked how loud election deniers have been for the upcoming general election, Byrum described it as “death by 1,000 cuts.”

“There have been numerous public records requests. These are not our typical (Freedom of Information Act) requests,” Byrum said, saying a typical request would seek out somebody’s voting record or a list of voters in a specific district.

She said the requests at-hand “are based on the election side – so not the qualified voter side, but the election side.”

Byrum said more than seven groups have applied to have poll challengers in advance of the deadline, while normally she would see two or three organizations make these requests for a general election.

“We’ve heard about the Michigan GOP training individuals to be hired by their local clerks and serve as precinct workers, but then sneak in cell phones and call Republican lawyers and act as bad faith precinct workers – almost as moles in the precincts,” she said. “There are all sorts of things we have heard about as clerks to be aware of, to be on guard for.”