LANSING, Mich. (WSYM) — According to City Clerk Chris Swope they’ve received about 33,000 absentee ballots which is three times as many as 2016.
Dozens of workers have been preprocessing the ballots in order to save time in counting the votes tomorrow.
Each worker opens the absentee envelope and verifies that the ballot matches the name of the voter.
Once it’s double checked, the worker puts the ballot back in the secrecy sleeve.
Governor Whitmer passed the law to allow this process to take place. However, there is a clause which states they cannot count the votes until Election Day.
Swope said he wants people to know they are doing everything they can to ensure everyone’s vote is counted.
“I just want to state if it takes us two or three days, which I hope it will not. I hope we will have Lansing’s results at least sometime into Tuesday night or Wednesday morning," said Swope. "But, if it does take us a couple of days it’s because time is the only place we have that we can sacrifice. We will not sacrifice the accuracy and we will not sacrifice counting every vote.”
While some voters support this new process which will save time on Election Day, others feel it might compromise the accuracy of the votes.
“I feel like it’s a good idea. Every vote counts," said voter William Wells.
Voter Roy Chapel Jackson said he doesn’t like the idea of changing the process.
“For the last 50 years I’ve been voting, we do it on Election Day. I think we’d be good to do it all in one day. It would take away room for more mistakes,” said Jackson.
