In Swing States, Officials Struggle To Process Ballots Early Due To Strict Local Laws
Most of the country lets election officials do the arduous process of opening and sorting absentee ballots long before Election Day. In Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, they have to wait.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Tina Barton knew counting mail ballots would become a problem.
Barton is the city clerk of Rochester Hills, Mich., and after a 2018 state constitutional amendment meant that all voters in Michigan could vote absentee without an excuse, she began sounding the alarm: Election officials were going to start getting a lot more mail, but they weren't being given any more time to deal with it.
A local election that she administered last year, after the new law went into effect, saw more than 80% of voters cast an absentee ballot.
"Knowing that people were taking advantage of this new opportunity, we started projecting — where would this place us in
