As absentee ballot requests in Michigan rise exponentially, many local clerks are concerned tallying them all on Election Day will strain their resources and delay results - but the Michigan Senate Majority Leader said Thursday he isn’t interested in addressing the situation legislatively.

Following the passage of Proposal 3 in 2018, absentee ballot requests are up more than 60 percent in Michigan this year, according to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. Absentee ballots need to be opened up and verified - meaning it typically takes longer to count them than in-person votes - and they currently can’t be opened before 7 a.m. on Election Day.

Senate legislation backed by former Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, R-Holly, would let workers at absentee counting boards work in shifts and would allow some early processing of absentee ballots ahead of Election Day. The effort earned support at the committee level from many elections officials, and it’s now before the full Senate.

Asked about whether he supported the efforts, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, said he’s worried the move would be a step towards early counting of ballots, calling it a “dangerous precedent."

“I don’t necessarily think we should be trying to solve a problem before it actually occurs,” he said. "If I had to choose between early voting, early counting, versus late reporting, I’ll take late reporting all day long."

The comments are a blow to Johnson’s legislative efforts, which would allow municipalities with 10,000 or more registered voters to begin pre-processing absentee ballots the day before Election Day if they give notice to the Secretary of State.

Her bills were supported by many elections officials around the state, although some support going further and letting clerks fully prepare the ballots or counting them ahead of Election Day. Benson has previously called for early counting of absentee ballots.

Benson spokesperson Jake Rollow said in a statement Shirkey “is ignoring simple math, facts, and the expertise of the clerks who administer our elections."

Absentee numbers climbing

Delta Township Clerk Mary Clark, second vice president and chair of the legislative committee for the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks, said that doesn’t mean the absentee ballots will actually be counted early. But there’s a lot that goes into processing a ballot: employees verify the count of the ballots, open the envelope, remove the stub, take it out of the secrecy sleeve and flatten it all before they actually run it through the tabulator.

This year, because of no-reason absentee and increased absentee voting, clerks are looking at having to do that to far more ballots than in previous years.

“We are three weeks out from the election and we have issued nearly 5,700 AV ballots. In the 2016 presidential, we only processed a little over 3,800 absentee ballots. So I’m looking at a 65 percent increase, and I’m little by comparison,” Clark said.

Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck, who is also co-chair of Michigan Association of County Clerks Legislative Committee, said absentee ballots there are up 40 percent over 2016 numbers in his area. In the November general election, he wouldn’t be surprised if they go up 75 percent.

“I think ultimately our biggest concern is as it leads into the November presidential election. I mean, that’s where we’re going to see the biggest increase,” Roebuck said.

Statewide, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told reporters last week absentee ballots are up 63 percent. Clerks across Michigan have already issued more than 705,000 absentee ballots.

In a Jan. 29 Senate Elections Committee hearing on the issue, Rochester Hills City Clerk Tina Barton said she already hires between 350 and 400 workers during a presidential election.

With a nearly 70 percent increase in absentee ballot requests in the city and no space to add additional workers, Barton said she’s facing the choice of her workers putting in far more hours to count ballots or moving her absentee ballot counting room offsite, which she said could jeopardize ballot security.

Having someone counting absentee ballots for hours on end could also leave room for unintentional errors or risk worker safety, Barton told lawmakers, adding any other states process ballots or feed ballots into scanners before Election Day already.

“This is not only an efficiency issue for clerks, but it is also a safety concern for our senior workers,” she said. “We need your help. We are here to ask you for an impactful solution to this problem.”

House also considering legislation

A separate legislative effort backed by Rep. Julie Calley, R-Portland, would let smaller local governments team up with other communities when creating absentee voter counting boards, a change Calley said would make it easier for locals concerned about setting up their own counting boards in anticipation of more absentee voters than before.

“We want to give everybody as much confidence in the system as we can,” she said.

Calley’s bill passed the House Wednesday. Shirkey spokesperson Amber McCann said he hasn’t studied that proposal in detail, but said at this point, “the majority leader is comfortable allowing the current system to move forward with the new options for voters.”

Shirkey may block in Senate

Roebuck and Clark are supportive of Johnson’s bills, which balance out that increase in absentee ballots by letting clerks pre-process them the day prior to Election Day.

“It offers kind of the best of both worlds in that it still totally protects what’s on the ballot. But the time-consuming part of absentee voting is not putting the ballot through the tabulator,” Clark said.

But Shirkey feared the proposal would open the door to early counting and early voting, “which I’m very opposed to.”

He added clerks should focus more on recruiting more Election Day workers and bring their own creative solutions to the existing process.

Clark said the proposal does not allow early voting and “I’m not sure how he gets to that conclusion.”

Johnson’s legislation passed out of the Senate Elections Committee unanimously last week. But without the support of the Senate Majority Leader, it’s not clear whether they will be put to a vote on the Senate floor.

The Michigan primary takes place March 10.