Benson: Drop off, don’tmail your ballot
LANSING » Michigan’s top elections official said Tuesday that the presidential battleground state’s 1.5 million people with absentee ballots still in-hand should put them in a drop box or take themto their local clerk’s office rather than risk sending them by mail with two weeks to go until Election Day.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said hand- delivering a ballot will ensure it will arrive by 8 p.m. on Election Night and be counted. She also urged people who still want an absentee ballot to request it in person from their clerk instead of by mail, and she defended her recent directive clarifying that openly carrying a gun is not permitted in or within 100 feet of polling places, clerks’ offices and absentee counting boards on Election Day.
“We want to ensure that every valid vote counts and is received on time,” Benson, a Democrat, told reporters.
As of Tuesday, more than 3 million absentee ballots had been requested in the state and more than half of those had been returned.
People can vote absentee for any reason under a 2018 constitutional amendment approved by voters.
Benson has projected a total turnout of 5 million votes, which would be roughly equal to the state record set when Barack Obama first won in 2008.
Michigan State University political scientist Corwin Smidt released an analysis Tuesday projecting a turnout of 5.9 million, whichwould be 1 million more than the nearly 4.9 million votes cast when Donald Trump narrowly carried the state in 2016.