Yes, County Clerks Do Make House Campus Calls
Michigan’s HAVA rules absolutely suck for college students. They require that first time voters vote in person. This leaves college students who live away from home two options: either re-register at their college address (and change their driver’s license, since both addresses must match) or drive across the state to vote at home. Each year, the Democrats in Washtenaw County try to re-register thousands of students at University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. Nevertheless, every year I’ve worked the polls I’ve seen a would-be first-time voter crushed when she discovered she couldn’t vote at her local precinct, and didn’t have the time (or the car) to drive home to cast a vote where she was registered.
This year, MI’s county clerks are trying to make it easier for students to apply for absentee ballots by allowing them to go to the Secretary of State office (basically the DMV office) near their college, show ID, and apply for an absentee ballot in person. In other words, a student at UM would go to our Secretary of State’s office, show ID, and get an absentee ballot sent from the clerk in Traverse City.
Only MI’s crappy AG and gubernatorial wannabe, Mike Cox, wants to prevent the clerks offices from doing this.
So, as a way to dramatize the plight of college students and to pressure Cox not to formally rule against this practice, Macomb County Clerk Carmella Sabaugh (who was the Democratic nominee to be Secretary of State in 2006) is driving to western Michigan today to drive three students registered in her county to the local Secretary of State Office so they can show ID and apply for an absentee ballot.
Macomb County Clerk / Register of Deeds Carmella Sabaugh (D-Warren) will drive 170 miles this afternoon to make sure Krysta Kornack of Warren and Jeanne and Katie Oxendine of Sterling Heights will not be prevented from voting. Kornack, a student at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, registered to vote on campus, and applied for an absent voter ballot. But her request was denied by her local clerk in accordance with Michigan law because she did not show a photo ID when she registered to vote. Kornack then went to the Ottawa County Clerk, the nearest county clerk office, showed photo ID, received an “In Person ID Verification” and applied again for an absent voter ballot. Read more →