Gretchen Whitmer and Jocelyn Benson: Legislature's inaction risks integrity of November election

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Whitmer and Benson: Legislature's inaction risks integrity of November election
Gretchen Whitmer and Jocelyn Benson


(Detroit Free Press) The state legislature has just two months to enact changes to improve our election system. We hope they’ll do so to support local clerks, election workers and voters, and to protect the integrity of Michigan elections.

The need for legislative change was made crystal clear in the August 4 primary. Michigan citizens want to vote, even in the midst of a global pandemic, and a record-setting 2.5 million cast ballots in August because they were provided clear, reliable and safe choices for how to do so.

In fact, voters set another record when more than 1.6 million cast absentee ballots through the mail, at their clerk’s office before Election Day, or at a secure ballot drop box.

Meanwhile, traditional polling places were clean, calm, accessible and sanitized repeatedly throughout Election Day by volunteer election workers — including the state employees and others we recruited to serve — using personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies bought with federal CARES Act funds and provided to every jurisdiction by the Michigan Bureau of Elections. ..............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2020/09/06/michigan-needs-new-legislation-safeguard-elections/5721661002/