FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

July 31, 2007

CONTACT:

Carmella Sabaugh 586-469-7939

Attempt to limit absent voting fails

Macomb County Clerk / Register of Deeds Carmella Sabaugh won a circuit court victory yesterday as Macomb County Circuit Court Judge David Viviano threw out a Republican Party lawsuit aimed at blocking Sabaugh from mailing absent voter application forms to senior citizens.

“This is a victory for senior citizens,” said Sabaugh. “The judge said it was wrong for Republicans to try to stop seniors from getting an absent voter application form.”

In the 2006 election cycle, 11 of 24 Macomb County communities automatically sent voters over age 60 an AV application form. That fall the County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution to, “Make the Macomb County absent ballot application process uniform and provide senior citizens with an equal opportunity to vote an absent ballot regardless of where in the county they live.” Sabaugh then mailed AV application forms to seniors in the county who would not otherwise have received them.

The Michigan Republican Party recruited plaintiffs to sue Sabaugh in an attempt to prevent Macomb County seniors from getting AV application forms. All seniors in Oakland County were mailed AV application forms, but the GOP did not sue Oakland County clerks.

“Today’s case makes it clear that a county clerk can mail absent voter application forms to senior citizens in order to give seniors an equal opportunity to cast an absentee ballot,” said Sabaugh. A copy of the decision is on Sabaugh’s web site http://www.macombcountymi.gov/clerksoffice.

This is not the first time Sabaugh made news regarding elections:

• Created Michigan's first online absent ballot verification system, letting voters track their AV application and ballot, and confirm local clerks process them.

• Let students learn and earn by hiring more student election inspectors to work in an official capacity than has ever been done in Macomb County.

• Posts the names of candidates fined for campaign finance violations on the county clerk’s web site and posts detailed campaign finance reports for county and local candidates.

###