IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. (WZMQ) – Absentee ballots for Dickinson County voters will be delayed, according to an email from Election Source, the company responsible for printing the ballots, sent to the County Clerk’s office.
The email stated, in part, “Hello clerks of Dickinson County, I’m sorry we won’t meet the AV ballot availability deadline on Thursday, September 26. This was a difficult election with the RFK Jr. on, off, and back on. Even the U.S. Supreme Court got involved. The format of how the state Supreme Court races were to appear changed midstream, and an education board candidate name had to be changed. These and an above-average number of local race changes made this election very challenging.”
County Clerk Carol Bronzyk explained the impact: “It just means that the absentee ballots were supposed to start being mailed out on Friday, and that’s not going to happen. So they’re going to be a little late getting mailed out.” She emphasized that delays are expected because of the time needed to prepare the envelopes for mailing.
“They’re supposed to be delivered by Thursday and start getting mailed out by Friday, but that’s not going to happen because it’s going to take forever to stuff the envelopes,” Bronzyk added.
At this time, the clerk’s office cannot estimate when the ballots will be mailed out. Bronzyk noted, “It depends on when we get them.”
Despite the uncertainty, Bronzyk reassured voters that they will have time to vote: “They’ll have the whole month of October. Hopefully, [the delay] will only be maybe a week. I don’t know. It depends on how long it takes them to stuff them, and if they’re going to work overtime to do that.”
