By Shelby Stewart

Staff Writer

Brandon Twp.- The Township will be taking advantage of a new program offered by Oakland County for counting Absentee Voter ballots. On Monday night the agreement was approved with a 7-0 vote at the township board of trustee meeting.

“This is something brand new, there is no end date to it ever, we can opt in or opt out as we wish,” said Candee Allen, township clerk. “They have $80,000 high-speed counter which will take a load off of us mostly due to the COVID.”

The program through the county will pick up absentee ballots the day before the Aug. 4 primary election and count the ballots. Three of the township election workers will be present at the county to oversee the process.

“They’re not only going to count our ballots, but other township ballots for Oakland County,” said Allen. “Which will save a whole lot of work, time, effort, safety measures, the whole thing. I feel this is a really good option for us. Six-hundred ballots a minute versus a few people working 24 hours to try and get our job done.”

Allen also expressed concern that if she were to have the ballots counted in the township offices, she would not be able to social distance the election workers, and she does not have enough days to get approval for a new location for counting from the state, as that requires 84 days.

“We were actually thinking the state would have said no in-person election,” said Allen.

This time, due to COVID-19, there is not a cost for this service. If the township wanted to use it again, it would be $100 per precinct, which would amount to $600 for the township.