With at least nine days of early voting now mandated for state and federal elections in Michigan thanks to the passage of Proposal 2, Berrien County Clerk Sharon Tyler says her office will be a lot busier. She spoke to the League of Women Voters of Berrien and Cass County Monday to explain how the early voting will work.
Tyler said each county had to decide whether to handle early voting at the county level or to leave it up to townships and cities. She opted to offer the early voting at the county level.
“As I watch my local clerks, some of them have full-time jobs, their clerk position is not a full-time position,” Tyler said. “This is a major strain with nine days or up to 29.”
Tyler said this will be a big task for the county, requiring 56 workers at two sites for the nine days.
She also said the Legislature should move the state’s primary date from August to June to prevent problems caused by the new nine days of early voting.
“It overlaps with other procedures that clerks must handle. So, when you have August and then you have November, you’re already preparing the November ballot. You have to have the audits. You’re going to already have early voting in a short window of time.”
Tyler said this will be extremely taxing on the clerk’s staff. Her biggest problem with Proposal 2 is that funding for the early voting was not accounted for in the language. She noted the state did thankfully approve Berrien County for a grant to cover some of the cost.
There will be no early voting in Berrien County for next week’s elections because they are all local. Tyler said the first early voting election in the county will be next year’s presidential primary.
