GRAND HAVEN, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – If you see a postcard from the Ottawa County Clerk’s office in your mailbox over the next few days, don’t toss it out of hand as just junk mail.
Instead of getting an application to absentee vote from the Michigan Secretary of State, county voters will get the mailing from the county clerk’s office instead, asking if you wish to have mailed to you a ballot for the upcoming August 4th Primary Election, the November 3rd General Election, or both. It was something that Justin Roebuck’s office had been working on after the May 5th election before Lansing stepped in on this idea in the wake of the COVID 19 outbreak.
“It was really a timing issue,” Roebuck said on “WHTC Talk of the Town” during a Wednesday appearance. “Because the applications came out so late, voters didn’t have enough time to turn around, mail the application back, receive the ballot, fill the ballot out and mail that back until after the election. We saw some of those challenges on the horizon and decided that, in conjunction with our local clerks, we needed to take some proactive action on behalf of our voters.”
The postcard is to be returned to the local clerk’s office, and the 22-cent per card cost of the mailing is being absorbed via designated federal CARES Act funds.
