Avoid Spoiling Your Michigan Absentee Vote By Following These Steps

Last May was the first election where Michiganders didn’t need a reason to cast their ballots without going to the polls on Election Day, a process known as absentee voting. 

Michigan residents used to only be able to vote absentee for a handful of reasons, such as being older than 60 or being out of town. But then Proposal 3 passed in 2018, allowing a number of voting rights in the state, including the ability to vote absentee for any reason at all. 

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Michigan’s presidential primary election is March 10. According to the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office:

• Requests to have an absent voter ballot mailed to you must be received by your clerk no later than 5 p.m. Friday, March 6.
• If you’re already registered at your current address, you can request an absent voter ballot in person at your clerk’s office anytime up to 4 p.m. on Monday, March 9.
• You can download an absentee voter application here.

Here are the four ways you can accidentally invalidate your absentee ballot.

1. When requesting your ballot, you must select a ballot type.

When you register to vote absentee, you MUST select your ballot type: Democrat, Republican or “Ballot without Presidential Primary.” The third option is for people want to vote in a local millage but not don’t want to vote in the presidential primary because they don’t want to publicly choose a party.

If you don’t select a ballot type, your clerk won’t know what ballot to send you and they’ll have to contact you. If that happens then you’ll have to select a ballot type in writing, meaning via email, a letter or fax. You can’t tell your clerk what ballot type you want over the phone, it has to be in writing. Once you select a ballot type in writing, your clerk can finally mail you your absentee ballot. You can avoid all of this, however, if when you are registering to vote absentee you make sure you select your ballot type.

2. When submitting your absentee ballot, don’t forget to sign the return envelope.

In order to vote absentee, you have to put your ballot into a special envelope and drop it in the mail or have it hand-delivered to your local clerk’s office. When you do that you have to sign the envelope. If you forget this step your absentee vote won’t count.

3. Your signature on the return envelope must match the signature on your voter file.

When you sign your return envelope, this is not a good time for you to try out a new signature. If the signature on the return envelope for your absentee ballot does not match the signature that is on file for you then your vote won’t count.

4. Make sure the right person delivers your ballot

According to state law, the only people who can deliver your ballot to the clerk’s office is you, a mail carrier, an election official, one of your family members, or a person residing in your home. So don’t give your absentee ballot to, say, your neighbor or your friend who doesn’t live with you. If you give your ballot to the wrong person it won’t count.