Dear Editor,

Our Secretary of State (SOS), Jocelyn Benson, made the decision along with our Governor to mail out millions of unsolicited absentee ballot applications.
Prior to this action, any voter could request an absentee ballot application, which adds a layer of protection that only the person that requests the application receives it.
After taking this unilateral action the SOS asked the legislators to pass a law allowing absentee ballots to be mailed on election day, thereby delaying declaration of a winner three or four days to allow for delivery and counting.
Due to anticipated number of absentee ballots, the SOS requested a law without identifying the cost to allow early counting (seven days) of absentee ballots, which presents the possibility of security issues.
The SOS and other election officials have already stated that failure to pass this law increases the risk of delays and errors.
This is electioneering blackmail to force the passage of the law that the SOS should have considered before the mass mailing of applications.
As it is now, there is no time to thoroughly investigate and develop an efficient and secure process to repair the SOS actions.
This is an ideal example of a person causing a problem and telling someone else to fix it and set the stage to publicly blame the other party.
The mass mailing contributed to the voting problems in the August primary election in Detroit which delayed the results and many ballots were voided for various reasons including failure to sign the folder.
The SOS wants to allow clerks to track down the voter and correct any errors, without identifying the time and cost this would require and how long results will be delayed.
The office of the SOS is responsible for the printing of ballots for Americans living overseas and ended up replacing Mike Pence as the Republican vice president candidate with the VP candidate of the Libertarian party due to an error in the voter database.
Is this the only error?
Has the office of the SOS purged all the individuals that have died or moved out of state?
Failure to do this purge and any other required corrections increases the risk of other individuals casting an unauthorized ballot.
These issues illustrate the problem with government officials taking unilateral actions without considering all the possible issues that could arise.
The Secretary of State’s responsibility is to improve the timeliness and the security of the election process and reduce cost where possible. The mass mailing of absentee ballot applications and the other legal demands will cause timing and security issues at significantly higher cost.
Secretary Benson owes all residents of Michigan an explanation why she failed to properly do her job responsibilities. 

Sincerely,
Tom Breneiser
Clarkston