Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Michigan’s free newsletter here.The ACLU of Michigan has sent a letter threatening potential legal action against a small northern Michigan community unless a deputy clerk corrects what the group is calling “unconstitutional” misinformation about the state’s elections shared online.The letter, viewed by Votebeat and confirmed by the ACLU, accused Tuscarora Township Deputy Clerk Dawn Webb of writing in a community Facebook group that there isn’t a legal deadline for mailing absentee ballots, only for making them available to voters to pick up.The ACLU contends that’s a fundamental misunderstanding of Michigan election law. State statutes require that absentee ballots be mailed to voters 40 days before the election, which this year was Sept. 24. It’s not uncommon for officials to miss that deadline for reasons out of their control; Votebeat reported last week that printing backlogs and tight election timetables caused absentee ballot delays in a number of Michigan communities.But Tuscarora Township may have waited too long. According to a widely circulated — but now deleted — Facebook post from a user named Dawn Webb, Tuscarora Township received its ballots the week after the deadline, but took at least a few days to assemble and mail them to voters. According to the post, the township mailed 240 ballots on Oct. 3. The ACLU says Webb told it the remainder had been put in the mail by Oct. 5 – a full six working days after the 40-day deadline. The law requires that clerks must send absentee ballots to voters “immediately” after getting their applications. If the application is in place before the ballots are received by local officials, they must be sent “as soon as the absent voter ballots are received by the clerk.”“There is no legally cognizable excuse for failing to mail out the ballots until October 5, a full week later,” Phil Mayor, the ACLU of Michigan’s deputy legal director, wrote in the letter.More than 800 of Tuscarora Township’s roughly 3,000 people are on the permanent absentee voting list, according to state records. The delay in getting ballots to them “unconstitutionally deprived them of several days” of voting time, Mayor’s letter continued.The ACLU is requesting Webb both publicly retract her comments and that the township issue a press release “in a prominent and obvious place on its website,” stating that the township will comply with election law by Friday. If that does not happen, Mayor writes that the ACLU “will consider all appropriate legal action to ensure that Tuscarora voters are not disenfranchised in future elections.”As of Thursday afternoon, it does not appear any corrections or press releases have been issued. Webb did not respond to calls or emails requesting comment. Other Tuscarora Township officials, including Clerk Laura Decker, also did not reply to requests for comment.A spokesperson for the Michigan Department of State confirmed Wednesday that the Bureau of Elections was looking into the accusations but was unable to provide additional details. The bureau was still attempting to get in touch with Tuscarora Township as of Thursday evening, a spokesperson said. The state previously confirmed to Votebeat that communities aren’t typically penalized for delayed ballots as long as officials are working to get them to voters.Ann Mullen, the ACLU of Michigan’s communications director, said Thursday that her team is unaware of any clerks who still haven’t sent out their ballots, but noted “this is an issue our team continues to monitor.”“Our expectation is that clerks follow election laws and send out absentee ballots at the beginning of the 40-day period prior to an election, at least so long as they have printed ballots by that date,” Mullen wrote in an email. “If we hear reports where that has not happened, our legal team addresses them immediately with clerks to ensure ballots are sent quickly and that the clerks understand the law and must follow it.”The ACLU of Michigan has shown a willingness in the past to take action against election officials who suggested they might operate outside state laws. In 2024, for example, the group preemptively sued a Kalamazoo County canvasser after he said he might not certify the election.The organization dropped the suit after the canvassers signed a sworn affidavit pledging to fulfill his legal obligation to certify the election.Hayley Harding is a reporter for Votebeat based in Michigan. Contact Hayley at hharding@votebeat.org.
