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Few things in life are simple -- even fewer in a swing state like Michigan where those who wish to lead us want us to believe everything is a life-and-death matter of partisan politics.
But in November 2018, we Michigan folk agreed by a more than two-to-one margin that we wanted to vote, and we wanted our votes to count.
Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and Green Party voters -- 66.9 percent of the state's electorate -- signaled they wanted the option to cast their ballots up to 40 days ahead of Election Day, plus other voter-participation initiatives such as straight-ticket voting and same-day voter registration.
Predictably newly empowered, we broke records in August 2020 with more Michiganders participating in a primary than ever in state history -- and the majority of voters chose no-reason absentee voting.
It didn't take long for us to change how we voted -- but election clerks warned that it would take longer to get results if this pattern held true in the general election. They spoke clearly and in no uncertain terms: There would be a long lag between in-person voting, and the absentee ballot results, as clerks would be inundated with millions of envelopes to open, signatures to verify, tabs and security sleeves to remove and tabulate.
We all know what happened in November 2020.
However, after in-person polls closed, many politicians conveniently forgot the preordained lag time, even the process and vote that got them elected, and chose to cry "fraud" in just one race on the ballot. Although the Michigan GOP-led Senate Oversight Committee found "no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud in Michigan's prosecution of the 2020 election," the deluge of mis- and dis-information Michiganders choked down was harrowing. Not to mention the violence and discord.
On Wednesday, in this last session before the Nov. 8 election, our Legislature made a move to underscore that secure, fair elections are a non-partisan issue.
The measure allows clerks to pre-process absentee ballots -- removing outer return envelopes, verify absentee ballot numbers and placing secrecy sleeve-covered ballots into a secure container -- two days before Election Day. This cuts the lag time and undercuts misinformation about "vote dumping" by those who used lags to stake out some emotional turf.
The move will be accompanied by extra security measures, such as chain of custody logs, specific worker identifications and more clerk oversight; extra polling locations like senior housing facilities, apartment buildings, banquet facilities or recreation clubhouses (so long as the owner isn't a political donor); and for daily dead voter checks in the two-week run-up to Election Day.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who vetoed bipartisan polling station and dead voter bills previously in a partisan blockage, should sign the bill promptly.
Pre-processing absentee ballots is allowed in 38 states. Ten states allow counting them before Election Day.
We may be relatively new to absentee voting, but we learn quickly. Allowing pre-processing, now that most of us choose to vote this way, will get us our election results faster and fairer. It will cut down on misdirection and disinformation from any quarter of our partisan world. There will likely be more tweaks down the road as we navigate this new normal. But, no matter who is in office, a free, fair and secure vote is a non-partisan right.
Michiganders told our leaders how we want to vote -- with more options and clear heads.
Our leaders need to respect that.
-- Traverse City Record-Eagle