By Jim Newell
Managing Editor
OXFORD TWP. – There is a special roped-off area in Oxford Township Hall where employees in the clerk’s office are working diligently on absent voter ballot requests and stuffing ballots into envelopes.
If you’re not a member of the clerk’s staff, a sign reads, don’t enter this area, with the addendum: “If you think this doesn’t mean you, it probably does.”
The Presidential Primary Election in Michigan is Feb. 27 and Oxford Township Clerk Curtis Wright and his staff are working diligently to process stacks of absent voter ballot requests, register new voters and prepare for the upcoming election.
In Oxford Township – including the Village of Oxford – as of Jan. 1 there are 17,650 registered voters on the voting rolls, with 7,263 on the absent voter list, leaving 10,387 who have to vote in-person at a precinct location unless they request an absent voter ballot between now and election day, Wright said.
Absent voter ballots will arrive in voters’ mailboxes soon, Wright said on Thursday.
“It’s busier than I’ve ever experienced,” he said. “We’re going to do it as a mass mailing all at once, probably next week. We’re looking at over 7,000 absent voters on the rolls. That doesn’t mean that’s how many are going out next week, but that’s what we have on the rolls.”
The Feb. 27 election is a closed primary, so residents requesting an absent voter ballot will have to declare which ballot they want, either democrat or republican. Residents can also choose to be on the permanent absentee voter ballot list or request absentee ballots for specific elections.
Voters should have already received their absent voter ballot applications in the mail.
“These were sent out and if people didn’t return them starting today (Jan. 18) we have to physically call them, we have to email them or send them a letter to tell them ‘You haven’t returned your ballot.’ It’s just another layer of Proposal 22-2 that’s caused a lot of work on our part to comply with the new laws,” Wright said.
Besides voting by absentee, voters can also vote in person at a precinct on election day or at the nine day early voting site at Orion Township Hall (see more information in box at right).
“There’s so many different ways to vote now. If you don’t vote we don’t know what else to do for you,” Wright said. “It’s pretty much democracy at its finest. I just hope people get out and vote. There’s no excuse to not get out and vote.”
Oxford residents can register for the election by mail through Feb. 12. After that, residents must register in-person at Oxford Township Hall, 300 Dunlap Rd. Residents can register to vote through election day.
For additional information on elections in Oxford Township, visit the clerk’s page on the Oxford Township website, www.oxfordtownship.org, contact the clerk’s office at 248-628-9787 or go in-person to Oxford Township Hall.
Wright is not sure about how many voters will cast ballots in the primary election, which is usually a lower turnout than the November general election.
“I really don’t know. The hope is 100%, of course. But as far as the turnout it’s hard to say. I think if we (can) get 25% for this election. It will ramp up when August comes along. It will probably go up to 60(%) and probably closer to 80% for the presidential election, which is in November,” Wright said. “It’s just the nature of the turnout.”