LANSING – State Representatives Vincent Gregory (D-Southfield) and Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield) today voted for a comprehensive plan to make it easier for troops stationed overseas to vote by absentee ballot and to help ensure their ballots are returned to their communities in time to be counted.
"It's an outrage that one out of four ballots sent overseas never made it back home in time to be counted," said Gregory, a sponsor of the plan. "Many of these were votes that simply went uncollected and uncounted. We've got to do a better job of getting these ballots to our troops and protecting the rights of voters – especially those who are fighting for that very right."
In the 2008 presidential election, more than a quarter of the ballots requested by U.S. military members stationed abroad and other American voters overseas went uncollected or uncounted, according to Congressional Research Services. In Michigan, of the nearly 21,300 ballots sent, only 15,407 were returned within the deadline to be counted.
The House plan will help ensure that military personnel and citizens living overseas can vote in time by:
- Allowing for fast, e-mail transmission of absentee ballots to service members stationed overseas. The service members would then print them, fill them out and mail them back to the clerk.
- Requiring all absentee ballots to be delivered to clerks for distribution at least 45 days in advance of all elections.
- Giving local governments more time to print out ballots in order to send them to military personnel.
Thirty-two other states already allow for the electronic transmission of absentee ballots to voters.
"The least we can do for the brave men and women who risk their lives protecting our freedoms is to ensure their votes are counted," Brown said. "The right to vote is one of the core principals that make our country great. Our dedicated military personnel deserve the chance to have their voice heard no matter how far away their service takes them."