Secretary Benson marks Sunshine Week with video series highlighting election transparency
The Michigan Department of State today released a video that explains why results of major elections in Michigan often aren’t available right after polls close. It’s the first of a series of videos that transparently explain Michigan election operations to educate voters and counter and preempt election misinformation.
“In this era of misinformation, when lies about Michigan elections risk undermining public faith in our government and our democracy, Sunshine Week is an opportunity to highlight the transparency and integrity of our state’s election system,” said Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. “This series of short, simple videos will help citizens protect themselves from those seeking to discourage them from voting.”
The first video explains that Michigan election results in major and close elections will often come many hours if not days after polls close because the state Legislature does not allow local election clerks to preprocess absentee ballots before Election Day. Many other states that allow no-reason absentee voting – which Michigan voters enshrined in the state constitution in 2018 – provide days or even weeks for absentee ballot preprocessing prior to Election Day to ensure their voters have election results on election night.
Subsequent videos will debunk other misinformation and answer commonly asked questions about Michigan’s elections. They will be released regularly to prepare voters for the 2022 elections. In coordination with community partners, many of the videos will also be released in additional languages.
The first video is available here now, and will be posted on the department’s social media accounts. As the collection grows, it will be housed with the other election information and fact checks already available at Michigan.gov/elections.
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