More than 10,000 ballots mailed in to election officials in Michigan will not be counted, primarily because they arrived late.
Of the approximately 10,600 rejected absentee ballots, 6,405 weren’t counted because they arrived late, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, announced on Aug. 14.
Another 1,438 ballots lacked a signature, while 787 had signatures that didn’t match.
More than 1,100 people had moved, invalidating their attempts to vote. And 846 ballots were from people who died after voting.
The dozens of remaining ballots had additional issues, including unconfirmed identification.
Benson said many of the issues could be fixed by bills already introduced in the state legislature, including House Bill 5987, which would allow mailed ballots to count if they’re postmarked by Election Day, even if they arrive up to two days later.
“The data demonstrates that thousands of people who cast otherwise valid votes were not able to participate in last week’s election solely because the Legislature failed to act ahead of the primary,” Benson said in a statement. “With turnout and absentee ballot numbers expected to double or even triple in November, we could be looking at tens of thousands of Michigan citizens disenfranchised if the legislature again fails to act.”
More late ballots may arrive in the following weeks, she added.
Benson in May announced her office would send all state residents absentee ballot applications, drawing criticism from President Donald Trump.
More than 2 million Michigan residents requested absentee ballots for the primary; 1.6 million returned them.
Results from the primary weren’t finalized until the day after the election.
Benson’s office will send out postcards to 4.4 million voters informing them “of their right to vote from home” in November, she said on Aug. 13.
The number of people using vote-by-mail could double or even triple for the presidential election, state officials said.
Michigan’s Bureau of Elections is allocating $5.5 million to ramp up mail-in voting, including $2 million that will reimburse local governments that pay postage on ballot return envelopes.
“This comprehensive investment—including our mailing of information to voters on how to request to vote by mail, funding return postage for ballots, purchasing more supplies for clerks to process mailed-in ballots, and installing more drop boxes throughout the state—will ensure that all voters know how to safely, easily, and freely exercise their right to vote from home,” Benson said in a statement.
The unprecedented push of mail-in voting in states around the nation has caused concern. The U.S. Postal Service told 46 states on Aug. 14 that they’re at risk of having their residents’ mail-in ballots not be counted in the November election because of tight vote-by-mail deadlines.
State Sen. Ruth Johnson, a Republican who was Michigan secretary of state from 2011 to 2019, has raised worries about the state’s process.
“My concern is, we’ve received over 500 envelopes of people who have moved—and some up to 40 years ago—people that are dead they’re being sent to, some houses get as many as nine different absentee ballot requests,” Johnson said in a video message this month.
“When you’re sending out absentee ballot requests from the state of Michigan, from the secretary of state, in essence saying you’re on our qualified voter file, and we’d like you to vote, it sends a message to people that aren’t qualified, that they may be able to vote. And I’m concerned that that will happen.”
The whole thing is going to be one big fat mess!!!!!
Let’s see. One third of those 10,600 Michigan votes weren’t signed, had questionable signatures, or were sent from people who had died. (When did they die? Before or after voting?) Two-thirds of those votes were late, and who knows how many of them were cast by goldfish, the man in the moon, or local telephone poles?
Give me a break. If I can get my 95-year-old mother and her Rollator out to vote at the polling station, I don’t see any benefit in mail-in votes. Absentee voting is a different matter, and I have no problem with that. But mailed ballots are so easy to tamper with, and have been tampered with. A caller to a radio program said, in her district, the “R” or “D” was clearly checked on the back of the envelope.
A bill that validates the votes based on the postmark date is not seeing the forest for the trees–the percentage of invalidated/fraudulent ballots is way too high to let this happen.
If you want to mail out unsolicited ballots… allow the feds to purge the unqualified voters from your lists. That is one step. Make the voter sign and have validated that they are in fact the person filling out the form, and remove all identifiers from the return envelope. No names, addresses, party affiliations, or who this voter voted for.
So mail-in voting is accurate ? Just another example that its crooked.
I doubt we will have a confirmed president by Thanksgiving. 5000 lawyers are ready to pounce
the day after the election. The Florida-Ohio count may go on until Christmas.
Up until now, I had always expected a complete accurate by 8 am the morning after the election.
Based on fraud like this and what we have seen since 2000, I’ll be going to bed at 8 pm on election night.
This election begins on Nov 4.
My mother WAS a lifelong Democrat, why? Because she believed that the Democratic Party PROTECTED the Middle Class. But this is NOT my mother’s Democratic Party ANYMORE! They may call themselves Democratic Socialists and Progressives. But I was taught that Progressive is an adjective used to describe something like Progressively Communist Democrats! My mother’s family escaped Communist Russia to come here and she would be appalled at what TODAY’S Democratic Party has evolved into. Worse than that, she passed away in 2009 and yet somehow she KEEPS VOTING DEMOCRATIC! That’s the only way Jackass Joe Biden can get elected because anyone alive with half a brain that knows how to use it WON’T VOTE FOR ANY PROGRESSIVELY COMMUNIST DEMOCRAT!!! … God help us and Please help re-elect President Trump who is trying to save this Capitalistic Republic!
Don’t worry! They will send out 4.4 million ballots to Michigan voters. I am absolutely sure that at least ten million “ballots” will be returned, marked Democrat, ensuring that Joe and Kamala win. This will be repeated in at least enough States to ensure a Democrat “landslide”.