Michigan’s Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is setting the bar low when it comes to getting state’s election results in a timely manner. She was recently on Sunday on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” and said [1] that results for the upcoming Nov. 5th election should be certified by the day after Election Day. Well, that’s comforting to know.
In Benson’s world, that’s considered speedy. While some states manage to churn out results on Election Night (a novel approach!), Michigan’s top election official is apparently fine with the “day-old donuts” approach.
What’s the holdup?
There are more options to process ballots now in 2024 than in 2020 but Benson insists that “accuracy and security” are the priorities over efficiency. Or is it more about “finding” votes that are needed if Democrats are behind, because, let’s face it, that’s what most of us are thinking – and expecting the cheating Dems to do.
Why should Michiganders have to accept a slower-than-average count, especially with all those fancy new procedures in place including allowing clerks to count absentee ballots EARLIER than before? On October 28th, absentee votes can start to be counted in cities and townships that have over 5,000 residents and on November 4th (the day before the election) any city or township can start counting them.
If we’re supposed to be excited about the new voting improvements, shouldn’t the results come a little faster? No, not according to our leading Democratic Secretary of State.
Don’t hold Your breath if you want to know who won the presidential election in Michigan.
More than 1 million absentee ballots have already been returned in the state and another million-plus are on the way. It’s a lot to count but that’s what ballot counters and computers are for. It’s not like we have 80-year-old election volunteers hand-counting paper ballots (although I would probably prefer that).
Benson seems confident in certifying results quickly, but when “quickly” is redefined as “tomorrow,” it’s hard to call that a win for election transparency.
And with more voters registered than the voting age population in the state, it’s obviously going to take a while to count all of the invalid, illegal, ineligible and dead voters.
Luckily, we have others media outlets like the Associated Press and Fox News who are willing to “call” the election using projections based on vote counts that are already reported.
In the end, it seems Michigan’s election results are shaping up to be a test of patience rather than efficiency. With a secretary of state who is lackadaisical about when election results are finalized, we’re left wondering whether “slow and steady” is just code for “dragging it out until we get the results we want.”