The Michigan Supreme Court has declined to hear a case seeking to extend the deadline to receive absentee ballots ahead of the presidential election in the swing state.
In a 4-3 order Friday, just days before the state’s Aug. 4 primary, justices said they were not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed. A dissenting justice said he is “baffled and troubled.”
The decision leaves intact an appeals court decision that says state law requires that absentee ballots be received by the time polls close on Election Day to be counted. Plaintiffs wanted them to count as long as they were postmarked on or before Election Day.
Earlier in the week, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson urged people who have not returned their absentee ballot to utilize drop boxes in the usual voting jurisdiction due to potential delays with the U.S. Postal Service.
“It may take some time to count and process absentee ballots that are processed through the mail because we are dealing with, in many cases, two times the amount of ballots that are typically processed internally,” Benson said. “If we don’t increase the time on the back end for clerks to process them, yes it will take more time on the post-election end to ensure they are counting them efficiently and accurately.”
Benson in May mailed all of Michigan’s 7.7 million voters an absentee voter application for the August and November elections. Benson said she took the step to make it convenient for people to vote by mail with an absentee ballot and avoid the risk of the coronavirus disease 2019 exposure by going to a public polling place. Her decision was challenged as illegal in state courts; but a Michigan Court of Claims judge ruled that there is no harm in mailing out the applications.