Robert Anderson

For John O’Bryan and Hannah Lantz, a young Skandia married couple with small children, voting absentee for the first-time last fall from the convenience of their home was easy and COVID-safe. Instead of mailing in their absentee voting ballots, they just deposited them in the secure drop-box at the township office.

No lines, no wait and no fear that their ballots might arrive late in the mail. John and Hannah’s good experience with absentee voting was repeated throughout the U.P. and downstate, resulting in a significant increase in voter participation.

“Making voting as easy as possible for the voters is the goal of us clerks,” said Rachel Sertich, Negaunee Township clerk, and she continued, “I truly do think that no-excuse absentee voting was a good thing.”

Sands Township Deputy Clerk added, “We had no issues with absentee voting in Sands Township. It went well. The state safety requirements were in place for the drop box, so it was very secure.”

Marquette City Clerk Kyle Whitney reported a huge increase in absentee voting: in 2016, AV ballots were only 25.3% of votes cast but in 2020 AV ballots were a whopping 67.8% in the city. Marquette County Clerk Linda Talsma reported a similar big jump in absentee voting county-wide from approximately 25% in 2016 to 60% in 2020.

Given these positive reports on absentee voting, I was surprised that some senators in Lansing want to restrict it and make regulations that would make it harder for voters to vote absentee. So, I decided to interview election clerks in Marquette County to find out whether they thought absentee voting needs a fix.

The biggest change senators want is to require voters to send a copy of their driver license in with the application for an AV ballot to verify identity. But there is already an existing system of identity verification, in place for years, that the clerks told me “works just fine.”

In the existing system, the clerks verify the identity of AV ballot applicants by matching their signatures on the application with their signatures on file. I spoke to the clerks from Marquette city, Ely Township, Chocolay Township, Marquette Township, Sands Township and Neguanee Township and all agreed that current matching system works well to verify voter identity.

“Why fix something that isn’t broke. Requiring a copy of your driver license is unnecessary,” said Chocolay Township Clerk Max Engle, and he added, “Besides, this could disenfranchise people who don’t have driver licenses or access to a copy machine.”

Ely Township Clerk Molly Taseris said, “Absentee voting went smooth. There is nothing I would change.”

Getting ready for the expected surge in absentee voting, Marquette County Clerk Linda Talsma reported that 100% of local clerks installed drop boxes or drop slots into office buildings to allow absentee voters to drop off AV ballots at times convenient for them rather during restricted clerk’s office hours or to rely on the mail service.

The Marquette city clerk also opened a part-time satellite office on the NMU campus.

Clerks confirmed that the drop boxes were popular with voters, especially those voters worried about possible postal service delays. No security issues were reported with the boxes. Despite this success story, some senators propose locking drop boxes before the polls close on election and want to mandate that clerks install expensive high-definition surveillance cameras to monitor them, without providing any state funding.

But according to Clerk Randy Ritari, “The idea of locking drop boxes is ‘crazy’–this will confuse and discourage voters who try to drop off their AV ballots after work–only to find the box locked.” Other clerks agreed that early-locking of drop boxes makes no sense and might deny last-minute voters a convenient way to return ballots.

There was one legislative improvement the clerks agreed on, which is to allow the clerks to start counting [but not reporting] AV ballots on the day before election day. “That would relieve a great deal of stress clerks faced last fall when they had to count AV ballots and run in-person voting on election day,” said Samantha Morin, Powell Township clerk.

So, my message to state Sen. Ed McBroom is to listen to the clerks. Absentee voting is a good thing that needs to be encouraged, not restricted by over-regulation. Remember the wise words of Negaunee Township Clerk Rachel Sertich, “Making voting as easy as possible for the voters is the goal.”

Isn’t that how democracy thrives?

Editor’s note: Robert Anderson of Marquette is an elder law attorney.