Late last week, Watershed Voice became aware of a complaint from a citizen who said they had not received a requested absentee ballot application. Early this week, a second such complaint came to light. In both cases, the persons affected said they called the Three Rivers City Clerk’s office and ascertained the situations were due to processing errors. Both now expect to receive their applications.

On Thursday afternoon, Democratic candidate for St. Joseph County Commission Andrew George posted a Facebook video in response to recent inquiries about absentee ballots. In the video, George said, “I’m not sure what the issue is currently, but I do want to encourage you, if you live in the Three Rivers area and have not received your absentee ballot, please call the City Clerk, Melissa Bliss, and request that your absentee ballot be mailed immediately.”

In order to clarify what issues might be affecting ballot request processing, Watershed Voice reached out to Bliss by email for more information. In her reply, also by email, Bliss said the number of absentee ballots has been increasing steadily over the course of three elections that have taken place or will take place in 2020. She also said the details of ballot request forms have been changing over the course of the year.

According to Bliss, here is how the absentee ballot application process has evolved:

• In March, the State of Michigan made absentee voter (AV) applications available for the presidential primary election “that offered voters the opportunity to request ballots for March and/or November but not August,” Bliss said. “They also included a check box to be added to our ‘Permanent AV List.’”
• Then, for the August primary, Bliss said some AV applications included options to request ballots for both August “and/or” November, as well as a check box for the permanent AV list.
• New this year, voters could also take photos of their applications and submit them by email or online and could also submit online application form through the Secretary of State’s (SOS) website.
• In addition to evolving ballot applications formats and submission options from the SOS, Bliss said the political parties and the various campaigns are also sending AV applications. As a result, in many cases, voters are receiving multiple AV applications from different sources. Bliss did not say explicitly whether the different applications may or may not look the same.

“If you can imagine the number of variables possible, you can see how this scenario could easily become a tracking nightmare for many clerks,” Bliss said. “We are receiving an excessive amount of duplicated requests, some with the same ballot mailing information and others with different ballot mailing information. Either way, each application must be processed and checked before a ballot can be sent.” Bliss said her office’s staff includes herself working full time, plus a part-time deputy clerk.

When her office receives a ballot application, Bliss said, the information it contains “is entered into our Qualified Voter File (QVF) program,” where it becomes “available for voters to track the status of their application and ballot through michigan.gov/vote.”

Even though the information is available and viewable, Bliss said, “the reporting functions have been less than perfect.” She did not say what the system’s imperfections are. However, she said, “the Bureau of Elections is also continuing to improve the QVF program with new updates to help clerks with different features and functions to assist with processing information.”

The QVF program helps clerks identify which voters have submitted duplicate applications from previous elections and track who has not yet had a current ballot sent to them. Clerks and their staff check QVF information and compare it to paper applications they have received.

Bliss said the actual AV ballots for the November general election began going out after September 18, in keeping with laws that require they be available by September 24. “Since this time,” Bliss said, “we have sent 1143 ballots to voters, and 496 have been returned.”

There have been errors in some applications, Bliss said, some owing to confusion about the information on ballot applications. “Over the past week, we have received a few phone calls from voters inquiring about the status of their ballots,” she said. “There have been some instances where voters did not check the appropriate box to request the November ballot.  There have been a handful of spouses and household members that returned applications at the same time but checked different boxes on their applications.”

Regarding the “permanent AV list” option on many ballot applications, Bliss said there has been some confusion. “This list does not mean that a voter will be sent a ballot automatically for every available election.  It does however provide them with an application to request their ballot.”

Bliss said there may have also been some oversights amid the confusion of processing applications. She said her office “found that approximately 10 applications received from the March or August election had not been physically copied into our November files, but their information was entered correctly into the QVF system. Because of this scenario, we have done a complete audit of our March and August AV applications that were received and duplicated any paper copies that did not get reprinted. This provides us with a second copy to match the electronic records and identify any applications that may not have been sent a ballot.”

The Clerk’s Office encourages voters “to track their ballot and status online and call with any questions or concerns,” Bliss said. “Working together with the voters ensures that they’ll get their ballots and can return on time.” For voters in Three Rivers city precincts, Bliss’s office is reachable on the telephone by calling Three Rivers City Hall at 269-273-1075. Voting and ballot information are available at the City’s website. Other, nearby townships and municipalities maintain voting and contact information for their clerks’ offices on their respective websites.

Dave Vago is a writer and columnist for Watershed Voice. A Philadelphia native with roots in Three Rivers, Vago is a planning consultant to history and community development organizations and is the former Executive Director of the Three Rivers DDA/Main Street program.