Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson released a report which shared preliminary data on rejected ballot numbers from the primary election. Statewide there were approximately 10,600 rejected ballots.
Ballots can be rejected for several reasons including the voter’s death or change of address after the ballot was sent in and failure to include the ballot in the envelope. The top two issues for this year’s primary election were signature issues and late ballots.
If the signature on the ballot is absent or does not match the signature on record, the ballot will be rejected. In this election 1,438 people failed to sign their ballots, and 787 ballots had signatures that did not match.
Ballots are also rejected if they arrive late. According to the data, 6,405 ballots cast in the primary were marked late. In St. Clair County 128 ballots were considered late.
Michigan House Bill 5987 allows ballots to be tabulated if they are received up to 48 hours after the close of the polls on Election Day, and the data released by the Secretary of State’s office doesn’t break down how many of the late ballots actually arrived within the countable period.
Reporting for WGRT – Jessie Wiegand
