Days after Primary Election, State Rep. Julie Rogers will host Voting Rights Town Hall
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Just days after the August Primary Election wraps, State Representative Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo) is hosting a Voting Rights Town Hall, offering information about Michigan's election system, voting rights and election security.
Throughout her 20 years running for office, Rogers said she’s seen skepticism surrounding the election process really ramp up, and she’s now working to restore confidence in the process by making sure no questions go unanswered.
“I think it's important to kind of lay out the facts and lay out people's rights,” Rogers said. “We really want to get people the information that they're asking for.”
Rogers will be joined by Michigan Deputy Secretary of State, Aghogho Edevbie, and other community experts to provide a behind the scenes look at how Michigan’s elections are run.
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Leaders will dive into topics surrounding rights, security safeguards in place, ballot processes and accountability, and oversight.
“Just because you cast your ballot, either in person or absentee, there's many layers to counting it, to verifying signatures, and then there's also what's called a canvas,” Rogers said. “There's each party represented, two Republicans, two Democrats, that watch and oversee that process. There's validators and the machines are checked multiple times. So lots of checks and balances to make sure everything goes smoothly.”
Elections are safe, secure, and decentralized in Michigan, according to Rogers, and not part of a statewide network.
Elections are carried out by local Republican, Democratic, and nonpartisan election clerks in the state's 1,521 cities and townships, according to the Michigan Department of State, strengthening election security and making it more difficult for statewide fraud to occur without widespread coordination.
“Sometimes there's these different statements made about a lack of security of voting machines or something like it's some broad network, and that is not the case,” said Rogers. “We want to put some of those fears to rest for the community.”
The town hall will go from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The first half hour will be dedicated to community resources, and a panel discussion will follow at 5:30 p.m.
The event will be held at Northside Association for Community Development, located at 612 N. Park St. in Kalamazoo.
Anyone with very technical, specific questions is encouraged to email Rep. Rogers in advance at JulieRogers@house.mi.gov.