Democrat Michigan Election Official Files Police Report On Toilet Mail-In Ballot Display

In 2012, Barb Byrum was temporarily banned from addressing the Michigan house of representatives after she argued for regulating vasectomies during a debate over a controversial anti-abortion bill.

She is now the Ingham County Clerk, which covers a large part of the state capitol of Lansing, and it is reported that she filed a police report with dispatchers on Monday about a toilet sitting on a front lawn in her county that is accompanied by a sign saying, “Place Mail In Ballots Here.”

Byrum said Friday evening, “It’s solicitation of absentee ballots into a container. Our election integrity is not a game. I expect everyone to act appropriately, and this is unacceptable.”

From the Lansing State Journal:

Mason police contacted her on Wednesday and promised to call her after they’d spoken with the homeowner, she said.

Under Michigan election law, illegally taking possession of an absentee ballot is a felony punishable a maximum of 5 years in prison and a $1,000 fine, Byrum said. The statute language can be found here.

The display is set up in the front yard of a home on West Columbia Street near Mechanic Street. A “Recall Whitmer” sign and a John James election sign are posted in the same yard. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is a Democrat and James is a Republican running for the U.S. Senate. 

No one was home when a State Journal photographer knocked on the door at the house on Friday evening.

In her statement, Byrum, a Democrat, said she found it “more than a little ironic” that the person registered at the address has voted absentee for the past three years. That type of information is publicly available, she said.

She also said she worries that President Donald Trump “is encouraging people to lose faith in the absentee voting process …”

In a telephone interview, Byrum noted that local clerks have received their initial shipment of absentee ballots, meaning it’s possible someone might have received their ballot and could put it into the front-yard receptacle.

In an August 4th election, Byrum held of a challenger to her seat.