Lord FionenSonja Buffa, clerk in Warren Michigan, has stated she’s not going to use the new Michigan voting laws to begin processing absentee ballots early. She claims doing so would be less accurate and “opens the door to for results to get leaked or compromised.”
“I will not risk compromising the integrity of the election,” she said.
I’ve learned a lot in the past few days about Michigan’s new election laws and when I read her statements I instantly thought she must be a republican and has a disenfranchisement agenda.
Michigan endured 40 years of Republican gerrymandering districts and consequently Republican rule with little checks on their reckless and hateful agendas. Recently the people of Michigan took back our electoral process. The districts are now being drawn fairly with a redistricting board made up of a representative sample of the population. We also significantly expanded voting rights and methods that make voting much easier for all Michiganians (don’t come for me on this, I don’t like “Michigander”‘ due to it being gendered language).
So it’s obvious to me that her definition of a “compromised election” is one in which Republicans can’t cheat their way to the seat. Now I’ll explain what she’s actually doing.
Warren, which is in the Detroit area, is Michigan’s 3rd largest city by population. It’s located in Macomb county which is a swing county that went red in 2016 and 2020. Warren itself tends vote left. People who tend to vote left are usually younger people (among other demographics). One of the most common reasons an absentee ballot is rejected is because of a signature mismatch. According to Kathleen Unger, a voter-protection attorney, this disproportionately affects younger voters as they are still solidifying their signatures. So they may have had one signature when they registered then a few years later it’s changed.
Michigan now requires electronic absentee ballot tracking and notification to the voter if there is a problem with the ballot, such as a mismatched signature, as well as a notification on how the problem can be fixed and have the vote counted (aka ballot curing). I believe this is part of the reason the State is allowing processing of the absentee ballots up to 8 days prior to election day. It gives voters a chance to “cure” their ballots if there was some reason for rejection. Obviously there is less chance of being able to cure the ballot if the processing begins on election day. The law also says that absent voters have up to 3 days after the election to cure their rejected ballots, but given that Warren is the 3rd largest city, the clerk could push processing past the time period for curing the ballot. This would disenfranchise people who could have cured the problem had she processed them in the days before the election. And we know ballot rejection disproportionately affects younger people and younger people tend to vote left.
So I feel that what she means by “compromising election results” is that she doesn’t want to have to let probable Harris voters cure mistakes to their ballots. The Michigan law also allows voters to take their absent ballot to the polling place anytime during early voting and on election day to put the ballot into the tabulator themselves. In that way the voter will be present to correct any issues at the time of voting. I would recommend that voters in Warren MI do this if they can. Actually I’d recommend this everywhere in Michigan, but Warren especially since it seems like Sonja Buffa, Warrens clerk, is up to something.
References:
Warren clerk says why she’s not pre-processing absentee ballots
Mistakes that can disqualify your mail absentee ballot
Inside proposal 2022-2 implementation and guidance
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dan