North Kent News

State House Rep. Mark Huizenga (R-Walker) believes that absentee balloting in upcoming elections needs to be considered both for costs to taxpayers and its impact on in-person voting.

“We must protect the fundamental values and integrity of our state and country’s elections,” Huizenga said in a press release. “While absentee ballot requests are part of our election process already, voting in person is part of the fabric of our elections. As legislators responsible for crafting a budget and digging into state spending, we must also determine the best use of taxpayer money – which will be paying for 7.7 million ballots to be sent out in the mail.”

Huizenga is chair of the House Appropriations General Government Subcommittee. On May 27, the Committee explored the impact of substantially expanded absentee voting on Michigan’s elections.

Michigan Secretary of State Joyce Benson said all the state’s voters would receive absentee ballots applications in the mail, the press release states. In May in a tweet that has since been deleted, President Donald Trump called Benson a "rogue" sending out absentee ballots without authorization, promoting voter fraud and threatened to withhold federal money from the state. Benson responded that the president’s comments were incorrect and that other states were similarly mailing ballot applications to voters in preparation for the primary election in August and the General Election in November, MLive reports.

Huizenga said questioning the process is appropriate.

“There is a fair debate to be had about the broad authority that has been given to the Secretary of State through unilateral action,” Huizenga said in the release. “But the focus of this hearing (May 27) was to examine how this announcement will impact the way elections are run in Michigan regarding funding, staffing, legitimacy and other key areas. This hearing was informative in learning more about the mechanism of our state’s elections, the timing and basis for this decision and the challenges such a decision will pose.”

Huizenga mentioned information he received from a constituent in the Grand Rapids area who said a neighbor received five absentee ballot applications when only two people live at the residence.