Roughly 2.5 million citizens of the approximately 5 million people expected to vote this fall have requested to vote by mail, according to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Early in-person voting has just begun in Michigan. Of course, the state's electoral votes there could be decisive in this year's presidential election. We're joined now by Michigan's secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson. She is a Democrat and joins us from Detroit. Secretary of State Benson, thanks very much for being with us.

JOCELYN BENSON: My pleasure.

SIMON: How does early in-person voting in Michigan work?

BENSON: Well, beginning this week, any voter - any eligible citizen can go to their local clerk's office and request their ballot, and they can either take it home with them and return it by mail or at a local drop box or at their clerk's office at their leisure, as long as it's before election night at 8 p.m. Or they could just fill it out and return it right there at the same time they request it. And then importantly, if they show up and they're not registered to vote, they can do that, too, prior to getting their ballot.

SIMON: And if they choose to mail it in, any notarization necessary, second envelope, any of the stuff we've heard about in other states?

BENSON: No. Our mail-in process is quite easy. They simply just drop it in the envelope, sign the outside of it and drop it in the mail. In most communities, the postage is prepaid. And in every community, there's a local drop box that they can also use to return their ballot. And as long as it's in that local drop box by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day, it will count.

SIMON: And when and how will these ballots be counted?

BENSON: Well, under state law, we can't start tabulating these ballots until 7:00 a.m. on Election Day. And when we look at the reality that there's going to be 3 million, at least, citizens voting by mail, 3 million ballots, if not more, to tabulate beginning at 7:00 a.m. on Election Day, it is simply impossible to get through all that in 13 hours or even in 20 hours. And so we're planning to, you know, take a few days to ensure the process is secure and accurate. And, you know, that's certainly what the work entails.

SIMON: There's been some opposition or reservations about beginning the count, hasn't there?

BENSON: Yes. And we've worked with our legislature to give our clerks a little bit more time to process the ballots prior to Election Day, which basically means opening the envelopes, checking the signatures, flattening out the ballots, preparing them to be tabulated. And so they've given our clerks an extra day to begin that process, which is helpful but, of course, doesn't go nearly enough to address the entire issue. You know, many other states have as many as seven days for their pre-processing. That's why we're - we want the country to know Michigan's going to be working hard, efficiently to tabulate all these ballots. But it may take a few days to get results. And again, that's the process working.

SIMON: And I gather from reports, a record number of people have registered through absentee ballots. That's the case?

BENSON: Yes. I mean, we're already at about 2.4 million citizens of the expected 5 or 5 1/2 million we expect to vote this fall in Michigan - have requested to vote by mail. And that's more than ever before in our state's history. And we know that number is just going to continue to climb.

SIMON: Let me ask about in-person voting as people may choose to do it on, I guess, what we still call Election Day. There were long lines in some cities in Michigan earlier this year, as I don't have to tell you for primary elections. Are you worried about that? Do you think the earlier voting might thin out the lines?

BENSON: Yes. I certainly do. One of the things we have seen this year is by spreading out and giving citizens options to either vote early or vote through the mail, we've been able to manage record turnout with minimal lines and crowding on Election Day. Now, we've also kept all of our precincts open, which we've been able to do through a very significant, aggressive poll worker recruitment effort that we began in April. And when you look at other states where they do have those long lines, oftentimes it's related to the closure of precincts or the consolidation of precincts.

SIMON: And, of course, people are still voting in the middle of a pandemic. This has to cause you some concern. What steps are you taking to try and guarantee the safety of voters and election workers?

BENSON: While keeping our precincts open, while encouraging citizens to vote earlier through the mail and minimizing crowding, we've also provided election workers with PPE - with masks, with gloves with hand sanitizers. The voting booths comply with our CDC social distancing guidelines to, again, minimize the potential for crowding. All of that has enabled us to create safe polling places. At this point, I feel very confident that voters will not have to risk their health in order to cast their vote in person.

SIMON: Jocelyn Benson is Michigan's secretary of state. Thanks so much for being with us.

BENSON: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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