University of Michigan issued the following announcement on July 28.
Amid the national debate over the safety and efficacy of absentee voting, Michigan can offer an example of how election reforms will play out in the 2020 election.
And the battleground state’s local officials have an overall positive outlook about it and other election reforms that were included in a 2018 constitutional amendment, according to a new University of Michigan survey.
In the Spring 2020 Michigan Public Policy Survey, local leaders said they see benefits from increased ease of voting and voter turnout expected with the reforms in Michigan. These reforms are also expected to bring new benefits and challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy at U-M’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy conducts the MPPS every spring. Among the survey’s key findings:
- 60% of city and township officials say no-excuse absentee voting has had positive impacts on their administration of elections so far, while 14% report negative impacts.
- 45% report positive impacts from allowing mail-in and online voter registration up to just 15 days before an election (moved up from a 30-day cut-off, previously), compared to 19% who say this has been a negative reform overall.
- 40% say that same-day voter registration up to and including election day at local clerks’ offices has had negative impacts overall, compared with 33% who report positive impacts.
Original source can be found here.
Source: University of Michigan
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