Michigan secretary of state: We will make sure the election reflects the will of the people (opinion)
Here in Michigan, once again a swing state that could decide the presidential election, we are ready. We’ve already held three successful elections this year — two since the pandemic hit our state — and half of our expected 5 million voters have already cast their ballots. Our voters amended the state constitution in 2018 to allow for automatic voter registration, straight-ticket voting and other changes strengthening our election system, and our 1,600 election clerks have worked tirelessly to implement the changes since then.
At the state level, we’ve stepped up our security procedures to be among the best in the country to defend against any attempt to hack our system.
These are just some of the reasons voters across the country can be confident — as we are — that Michigan elections will be an accurate reflection of the will of the people.
We are also vigilant. While we know our systems are secure, we have seen voters inundated by misinformation campaigns. They come from both foreign and domestic actors, and reach voters on seemingly every medium. Their goal, however, is the same: to discourage voting and reduce faith in our elections and their outcomes.
We will correct such misinformation with facts and, when appropriate, refer it to our attorney general for investigation, just as we have all year. But we cannot do this alone. We need voters across the nation to be vigilant as well. We ask voters to report any Michigan-related misinformation to [email protected], and to seek out trusted sources of election information. State secretaries of state and local election officials are reliable as are many nonpartisan organizations.
We want voters across the nation to know that in Michigan, the complete election results will not be available on Tuesday night. This is because absentee ballots take longer to process. Our state Legislature provided only 10 hours for local election clerks to pre-process ballots ahead of Election Day (an undertaking that involves opening envelopes and security sleeves, and tracking and flattening ballots before they can be counted).
Many states provide much more time for this step. Florida, for example, provides 40 days. Notably, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, two other swing states that have restrictive laws, are also unlikely to have full counts on election night.
Because of the significant increase in absentee ballots, and the time it’ll take to process them, we don’t expect the full results from every single jurisdiction in Michigan until Friday, November 6. It could go more quickly, thanks to the 30,000 election workers my administration recruited and the millions of federal dollars we allocated for additional vote counting machines. But simply put, we will prioritize accuracy and security in our state, since they are ultimately more important than speed.
We know the delay in announcing the full results will create an opportunity for those who generate and disseminate misinformation. It could even come from the candidates if they claim without evidence that fraud has occurred in Michigan, or if they declare victory here before enough votes have been counted to know the true winner.
We are ready for this as well. We plan to announce the number of absentee ballots that we have received as of Tuesday morning, and the number that arrive by our state’s deadline of 8 p.m. on Election Day. We’ll provide as much transparency as we can while the 1,520 local jurisdictions of our decentralized system continue to count every valid ballot.
And they will count every valid ballot. Each one will have a signature on the envelope that matches the voter’s signature on file. And it will be counted by a pair of election workers — one from each major party to prevent any political bias. Further, even after the counting is done, boards at the county and state levels comprised of people from both parties must then review the procedures and counts of the entire election before the results can be certified as official.
As is true in states across the country, such secure protocols are an ingrained part of local election systems. Executing them may take more time this year, but they will ensure our elections are accurate and transparent, just as they have been for decades.
But democracy is a team sport. It takes all of us working together to ensure our systems are secure and our voters know how to make sure their vote counts. In the days ahead, we need all Americans to join us in being ready and on guard against any attempts to disenfranchise, misinform or sow seeds of doubt about the integrity of our elections. Working together, we can ensure our democracy endures and thrives.
