We’re two weeks away from Election Day, but for a lot of voters, it’s already come and gone.
As The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Rick Pluta explains, a growing number of voters are choosing to cast absentee ballots.
With each election cycle, more and more voters are not showing up at the polls – choosing instead to mail in or drop off their ballots before Election Day.
My name is Jackie Payne and I am a resident of Lansing, Michigan, Ingham County, and a registered voter. I have, to my knowledge, never missed a vote since I’ve been eligible to vote.”
And she’s been voting absentee since she turned 60 and qualified automatically for an absentee ballot. That’s one of the six reasons under Michigan law that people can use to qualify to vote absentee.
(sound of envelope opening)
“And there’s the ballot … and so let’s see “Official Ballot, General Election, Tuesday, November 4th, 2014, Ingham County, Michigan, Ward 4, Precinct 37. That’s me…,” she says.
By the time election day rolls around, as many as a third of the voters participating in Michigan elections will have already cast their ballots.
Chris Swope is the Lansing city clerk.
“We are definitely having an increase over what we had four years ago in the last gubernatorial election,” he says.
He says absentee voting this year almost certainly won’t match what comes in during a presidential election, when interest is higher and more people vote. But he says interest in voting absentee is growing.
“We’re definitely seeing more people requesting absentee ballots and it seems like we’re having a pretty steady stream of mailed applications, faxed applications, scanned and e-mailed applications coming in,” he says.
Swope’s office participated in an experiment launched this year by the state Democratic Party to make it easier for people to submit their absentee ballot applications electronically, using a website to e-mail or fax applications.
“We’ve got to do a better job,” he says. “The internet, it wasn’t just invented last year.”
State Democratic Party Chair Lon Johnson says it’s part of a drive to get Democrats who don’t turn out for mid-terms to still participate. Johnson says his party is reaching out to voters not only to get them to apply for absentee ballots, but then to fill them out and mail them in.
“We’ve identified those folks,” he says. “We’re messaging them. We’re knocking on their doors. We’re sending them AV applications. We’re working to turn them out. If we do that we win. If we don’t we lose. It’s that simple.”
Republicans also have an absentee voter program. Both parties keep track of requests for absentee ballots, and will try to make sure voters get campaign literature, maybe a phone call or a home visit, before they fill out their ballot.
Darren Littel of the Michigan Republican Party says the GOP targets registered voters on their lists who score high as loyal Republicans, but a spotty record for showing up at the polls.
“If we can get a voter to send in their ballot now, then that’s one less voter we have to focus on on Election Day,” he says.
And political operations targeting absentee voters will certainly play an even bigger part in future elections, as more voters choose to vote early -- especially, if Michigan one day joins the 27 other states and Washington DC that allow no-reason absentee voting.
Because, especially in low-turnout years, close -- and even not-so-close -- races, could be decided by the ballots cast before Election Day.