Area clerks vote no on preprocessing

WARREN / CENTERLINE — Although many communities are embracing the preprocessing of absentee ballots for the general election, Warren City Clerk Sonja Buffa and Center Line Deputy City Manager and Clerk Janice Pockrandt have opted not to use it.

“I have been administering elections for 24 years and my staff has always demonstrated accuracy and precision with elections,” Buffa said in a press release.  “Accuracy is the number one priority for me, and then speed is second. It is for these reasons I have chosen not to preprocess.”

Center Line is a small community.

“We just don’t have the need for it,” Pockrandt said.

Preprocessing is a system where clerks are allowed to open the absentee ballots and run them through the tabulator; however, the results are not printed until the polls close on Election Day, according to Pockrandt.

“It actually would take more time to preprocess absentee votes for eight days given the extra people needed, the time it takes, the storage necessitated, and the compiling afterwards, than one full day of counting,” Buffa said.

Preprocessing is not mandated by law but gives clerks the option to implement.

“The legislature could have easily mandated preprocessing, but they chose to make it optional,” Buffa said. “And finally, up to eight days of preprocessing opens the door for results to get leaked or compromised. I will not risk compromising the integrity of the election.”

Buffa said she wants the result quickly and her team and she are committed to accomplishing this task while keeping the election accurate, safe and secure.

In spite of the scrutiny Buffa said her office has received, she wants to encourage the general public to vote.