Judge strikes down directive on absentee ballot signatures
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A judge has struck down a state directive that encourages local election clerks to be very flexible when reviewing signatures on absentee ballots.
The decision doesn’t apply to the recent fall election, of course, because it’s over. But the case is significant because the policy from Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson apparently would have applied to future elections, too, Judge Christopher Murray said last week.
Murray of the Court of Claims said Benson’s directive was illegal because it didn’t go through a formal rule-making process that involves the Legislature.
Benson told clerks last fall that they must presume a signature on an absentee ballot envelope or a ballot application is valid.
Signatures “should be considered questionable” only if they differ “in multiple, significant and obvious respects from the signature on file,” Benson said at the time.
More than 3 million absentee ballots were cast in the November election, the first major election since absentee voting was expanded in Michigan.
Benson, a Democrat, was sued by the Michigan Republican Party and Allegan County Clerk Robert Genetski, a Republican. They claimed the presumption in favor of a voter’s signature could lead to invalid votes.
“Nowhere in this state’s election law has the Legislature indicated that signatures are to be presumed valid, nor did the Legislature require that signatures are to be accepted so long as there are any redeeming qualities in the application or return envelope signature as compared with the signature on file,” Murray said.
State police reopen 1981 homicide of former bartender
SALINE, Mich. (AP) — Nearly 40 years later, police are asking for the public’s help to solve the death of a woman who was last seen leaving a Washtenaw County bar.
Mary Alice Ellicott was at the Polar Bear Bar, on U.S. 12 between Clinton and Saline, on Oct. 11, 1981. Her body was found 13 days later in a grassy field, less than 2 miles away, a victim of a homicide.
Ellicott, 29, was well known at the bar; the Saline resident had quit a job as a bartender a week earlier, said Det. Sgt. Larry Rothman of the state police.
Rothman said more resources, not a major tip, led to the decision to reopen the cold case.
“A lot of work was done when this first happened,” he said. “Whenever you’re working on a cold case you have to open up the box and go over everything.”
No tip is too small.
“Over the years, people talk, relationships change,” Rothman said. “Those people may have known her or heard of her. Every little thing is important. To me, everything is relevant.”
Anyone with information can call (313) 407-9379.
Polar Bear Bar is now Thompson Bar & Grill in Saline Township.
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