State may make military voting easier

JENNIFER CHAMBERS
The Detroit News

Clinton Township-- Responsible for the morale and discipline of 90 recruiters working throughout Michigan, U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Laura Rios found herself battling her own spirits when it came to one confounding issue: voting overseas.

"They would mail me my ballot and I would always get it on the day it was due," said Rios, a 26-year active member of the military who served tours in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and England. "My vote has never counted."

A bill moving through the Michigan House would speed up the process for overseas military members by allowing election clerks to e-mail or fax absentee ballots.

The legislation, sponsored by state Rep. Vince Gregory, D-Southfield, came on the heels of a 2009 report by the Pew Center on the states that assessed the amount of time overseas military voters had to return ballots in time to be counted for election day.

The study found in Michigan the process took 57 days, not enough time for a ballot to be returned and counted.

County clerks in Oakland, Wayne and Macomb are pushing for the legislation, which is in effect in 30 other states.

"This is an embarrassment for Michigan. We have a responsibility to treat our members of the military with respect," said Ruth Johnson, Oakland County clerk. "It's important to do. It's just common sense. Right now we already have 30 states that are doing it with no problem."

Pew researchers broke down the Michigan voting process into multiple steps: two days for the government to process the ballot request, three days for the government to prepare and send the ballot, six days for it to be mailed and 18 days for the military to process before it gets to the voter. Once the voter has completed the ballot, it takes another 18 days for the military to process, six days for it to be mailed back through the post office and one day for it to be processed at the clerk's office.

According to the study, military voters abroad need an additional 13 days for their vote to count in Michigan elections.

Michigan is not the only state where overseas military voters face challenges. The study found Michigan was among 16 states and the District of Columbia that failed to provide enough time to meet all the voting deadlines.

The study compared Michigan to New Mexico, a state that allows overseas military voters to electronically register to vote, request a ballot, receive a ballot and submit a completed ballot. The process there takes eight days.

Macomb County Clerk Carmella Sabaugh said in the November 2008 general election nearly 30 percent of the county's absentee voter ballots mailed overseas -- 225 of 774 -- were not returned on or before election day. This contrasts with just 3 percent of unreturned county absentee voter ballots mailed to citizens within the United States, she said.

The bill calls for the Michigan secretary of state to establish rules on how the ballots would be returned. Johnson has proposed the ballots be counted just like any other absentee ballot, which is tied to a single voter and undergoes signature verification.

"The voter would print it, fill it out and send it back using traditional mail," said Johnson, a Republican.

Ken Silfven, spokesman with the Michigan Secretary of State's Office, said his office is not taking an official position on the bill right now because it wants to see what happens with proposed federal legislation on the issue.

The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, would allow states to send absentee ballots via e-mail or fax. Other similar measures exist in the House of Representatives.

"Our preference is to see what Washington does first so Michigan can make any necessary tweaks to its laws all at once. That would be easier than passing new state legislation and then possibly having to be going back and changing things again based on what the feds do," Silfven said.

In the 2008 election, Michigan had about 20,000 ballot requests covered under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which includes all military voters and all overseas civilian voters. Silfven said about 15,500 came back. Of the 4,500 that did not, about 2,000 were from voters who are on a list for the automatic sending of ballots for two federal general election cycles, which, Silfven says, likely means that many have moved.

Silfven disputes the findings of the Pew study, but agrees the system "has room" for improvement.

The state is limited in how early it can mail out absentee ballots to overseas members because it has to wait for state party conventions at which candidates are nominated. In the 2008 election, the state was unable to certify ballots to the counties for printing until the 57th or 58th day before the election due to state party conventions, he said.

Rios, who is retiring from the military this fall and works for Macomb County Veterans Services, said it is well known inside the military that most overseas ballots will never be returned in time for Election Day, leaving members -- who serve to uphold the rights of others to vote -- angry, frustrated and disenfranchised.

"They know it won't count and many of them don't even vote now," she said.

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