Absentee ballots for Aug. 2 primary ready to mail

This week, municipal clerks begin mailing out absentee ballots for the Aug. 2 primary election.

Absentee ballots should be returned to the clerk’s office “as soon as possible,” Kim Markee, Waterford Township’s clerk, told The Oakland Press. Her office is mailing absentee ballots to the 23,000 residents who have already applied for them.

To get an absentee ballot, a voter must apply, either in person or online. Those applying online must do so before 5 p.m. Friday, July 29. People applying for absentee ballots on Aug. 1 or Aug. 2 must turn them into the clerk’s office that day.

Markee said voters remain confused by the difference between absenteeballot applications and the ballots themselves.

Part of the problem stems from various activist groups mailing out absentee-ballot applications, which is legal — all the applications go to the clerk’s office. But township, city and village clerks also mail out these applications, Markee said, which can cause voters to submit duplicate applications.

Regardless of how many times a person applies for an absentee ballot, they will only get one, Markee said, because election workers count and compare the applications to make sure they are valid.

More often, she said, people stop by the clerk’s office to fill out the application and get their absentee ballot — and many fill it out on the spot. Anyone doing this must have some kind of photo identification, in the form of a driver’s license, state or school ID. “That’s one-stop shopping,” Markee said.

That’s also the case for people who have never registered to vote. They can register, apply for an absentee ballot, get the ballot itself and turn it in on the same day.

Anyone who doesn’t have the photo ID to register for an absentee ballot must fill out a legal document called an affidavit.

Another area where voters get confused, Markee said, is how the absentee ballot is counted.

“People think they can return their ballot and they can run it through the scanner,” she said, adding “we don’t have early voting.”

What actually happens, she said, is that absentee ballots are securely delivered to the absentee ballot counting board for voting counts.

Whether people decide to cast absentee ballots or vote in person, Markee said people should take time now to get to know candidates and issues. One resource is the League of Women Voters’ educational website, https://www.vote411.org/ michigan.

Markee encourages anyone interested in being more actively involved in the election process to become an election worker. Her office pays election workers $175 a day. Call (248) 674-6266 for details.

Michigan’s Secretary of State website has a page dedicated to election and voter information, where people can register to vote, apply for absentee ballots and see a sample ballot. Details are online at https://

mvic.sos.state.mi.us.