Thread by @BarbByrum

Hi there! 👋 Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, here. To all of those calling for a change of candidacy in the Presidential Race, please note that the election administration community is going to have some serious issues with that. 🧵

To be clear, Michigan wouldn’t even be the worst of the problems. Our statute requires that a major party’s Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates be certified to the State within one business day of that party’s national or state convention, whichever is later.

The Democrats are holding their National Convention from August 19-22 and their Michigan State Convention on August 24th. The deadline is therefore August 26th.

Ballots to Military and Overseas voters must go out by September 21st, 2024 and AV Ballots must be available to Michigan Voters by September 26th, 2024 by law.

However, as I stated, this is for Michigan only. Every state has different statutory deadlines for ballot access and for Absentee Ballots to go out, and it is therefore dependent on identifying those dates and requirements 50 times.

My cursory understanding of other states is that that deadline may already have passed for some states, or may be in the VERY near future.

It is worth pointing out that even if Democrats follow the strictures of the law state-by-state, you would almost assuredly see lawsuits flying fast and often in any number of states, if they attempt to make a change.

Such lawsuits threaten to delay and derail County and Local Clerks’ efforts to program the election and prepare ballots, respectively. Essentially, efforts to prepare for the election would have to be put on hold.
That’s not a good thing in Election world.

After the ballot is created, the election equipment must be tested. This is often a lengthy process that includes testing at the County prior to election materials being distributed to local Clerks, then the local clerks do internal testing and finally Public Accuracy Testing.

Delays at any point in the process may impact local clerks’ ability to meet their statutory deadlines.

So Democrats need to understand the ramifications of the actions that some are talking about. This may extend far beyond the choice for President and put a cloud over the election.

It would also give ammunition to a candidate who hasn’t been shy about spreading disinformation about the validity of election results and give the opportunity to further erode the public’s trust in our elections process. And I will not stand for that.

However Clerks in Michigan are the best in the business and we stand ready to conduct the Presidential Election this November with whatever candidates are legally placed on the ballot through the Primary and nominating Convention process.