Confusing Instructions for Absentee Voters in Waterford Township
Ballot envelopes in Oakland County suburb have two sets of instructions for absentee voters to figure out. Here’s why.
Waterford Township residents who are voting absentee will see two different instructions on how to vote. One note shows how to cast a straight-party ballot while the other does not.
Township Clerk Sue Camilleri scratched out the instructions on the ballot sleeves when the Michigan Legislature earlier this year enacted a law eliminating straight-ticket voting.
But a federal court suspended that law in September, making the scratched out sleeves inaccurate.
“Rather than ordering 10,000 new secrecy sleeves, because we didn’t really know which way to go, we inserted new instructions in with the ballot. So at first glance, it would appear that there were two separate sets of instructions,” Camilleri says.
Camilleri says it would have cost about $3,000 to replace the inaccurate sleeves.
She says when the issue is finally resolved in court, she will re-order the sleeves with the correct instructions under the new law.
