Grand Rapids City Clerk Joel Hondorp says his office sent out absentee ballots September 26, and last week started getting calls from voters, reporting they had not received their absentee ballots, about 100 so far primarily on the city’s northwest side.
“As they’ve been calling in, we’ve been spoiling the ballots we assigned to them and are issuing them new ones.”
He’s also launched an investigation with their mail vendor and the U.S Postal Service to track down what the issue is, and where the missing ballots are now, although they’ve been marked spoiled and will not count if returned.
“So if someone thinks, hey, I didn’t get my ballot and someone returned it on my behalf, you can see if we received it back or not.”
Hondorp encourages anyone who’s unsure to call his office or return their ballot in person so staff can confirm it's the correct ballot.
“Where it looks like this is occurring is close to the West Leonard library drop box location and we empty these drop boxes every day.”
Hondorp also encourages all voters to go to the Michigan.gov/vote website.
“Not only to check your absentee ballot but you can check your voter registration. It can help you know as you go. As you get ready for voting it will let you know where your early voting sites are, where your precinct is. You can see a sample ballot.”
He says if you haven’t gotten your absentee ballot within a week of requesting it, check the website and if it shows the ballot was sent, reach out to your clerk.
