By Kristine Christlieb, MFE Senior Correspondent | September 30. 2024
On behalf of the Committee on House Administration, Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI) is asking Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to make the initial phase of mail-in ballot processing more transparent, Her office is ignoring the request.
In a September 13 letter to Benson, following up on the House Committee’s hearing of September 11, Steil asked Benson to clarify to “all County Clerks, that challengers are permitted at the initial stage of mail-in ballot processing.”
According to Steil, he asked for this clarification because “it is the Committee’s understanding that at least some clerk offices believe challengers have no right to be present during the initial processing of mail ballots and signature verification.”
Steil gave a deadline: “[T]he Committee asks that, by September 23, 2024, you confirm and communicate to the various clerk offices that challengers are permitted to observe initial processing of mail ballots and signature verification.”
Benson’s office responded by September 23; but in an email statement, Steil said, “I was disappointed by the lack of information provided by the Michigan Secretary of State’s office in response to my letter. Americans deserve secure and fair elections. I will be following up to ensure we receive a fulsome response.”
The Point of Contention
In his letter, Steil tried to make sure he was clear about the point of concern. He offered his understanding of Michigan’s two-step process for mail ballots which was not contested. “In the first step [the initial stage], city and township clerk offices receive and process the mail ballots.”
In this initial phase, city and township clerks examine the ballot on three levels:
· Is the elector [the person voting] properly registered to vote?
· When was the ballot received?
· Can the signature on the ballot be verified?
The second step in mail ballot processing is tabulating the ballot by an absent voter counting board.
There’s no dispute about having Michigan challengers in the second step of the process. The Committee’s concern is the initial phase, the validation of the ballot by reviewing the voter’s registration, documenting the date and time the ballot was received and verifying the voter’s signature.
The Committee on House Administration has the Constitutional authority to oversee elections to the U.S. House of Representatives. Steil argues in his letter that challengers are essential observers. “[I]n the event there is a contested House election in Michigan, it will assist us in assessing the reliability of the results.”
Steil concludes by saying it would be “absurd to permit challengers to observe[r] in-person voting, but then to prohibit challengers from observing mail voting.”
In Michigan Chief Legal Director Michael Brady’s September 23 response to Steil’s September 13 communication, he acknowledges the Committee’s concern was “observing the initial processing of mail ballots and signature verification,” thus making clear he understands what is at stake.
For the record, Brady quotes Benson’s testimony from the September 11 hearing in which she testifies Michigan is ready to welcome the Committee’s bipartisan observers. But then comes Brady’s obfuscation.
Brady first argues questions about Michigan challengers were not raised in the hearing. He then tells Steil Michigan observers are called poll watchers and that challengers have an entirely separate role.
Brady then details what challengers are allowed to do in the first step, the initial stage of the process.
He tells Steil: “Each challenger-credentialing organization may assign one challenger to observe the issuance and receipt of absent voter ballots at a clerk’s office or a satellite location maintained by the clerk, including an Election Day Vote Center. A challenger may be present at the clerk’s office only when the office is open for business and during the period prior to an election when voters may request or return an absent voter ballot at the office.”
Michigan Fair Elections Founder Patrice Johnson explains how this system works in reality. “What people don’t realize is clerks aren’t always conducting the initial phase of the mail-in ballot processing in their offices during regular office hours. We have clerk sources here in Michigan telling us they take ballots home where they check the voter registration, document date and time of receipt and verify the signature. All that is happening with no challengers present.”
Johnson explains why this happens. “Mail-in ballots require more scrutiny and only the clerks are allowed to do it. And now our clerks are inundated with mail-in ballots. Many clerks are serving in a part-time capacity, and so they are working sometimes from home just to keep up. It’s understandable, but it does create chain-of-custody questions and transparency problems. And obviously, it is a situation bad actors could exploit. How can we be sure registrations are checked? How do we know ballot signatures are actually verified? The truth is, we don’t.”
In 36 states, voters are sent mail-in ballots automatically or a mail-in ballot can be requested without justification. As Steil notes in his letter to Benson, “Transparency is especially important for mail voting, which the U.S. Supreme Court has found to be more vulnerable to fraud than in-person voting. Allowing observers to watch the processing of mail ballots guards against potential fraud and promotes public confidence.”
Kristine Christlieb serves as senior correspondent on MFE's communications team. She publishes Trust but Verify on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/trustbutverifyreport/p/voter-registration-blitzkrieg?r=2haa2x&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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