News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Alpena Clerk Anna Soik stands next to an absentee ballot drop-off box outside city hall on Monday. Soon, voters in the city will be filing the drop-box, which is now watched by a surveillance camera.

ALPENA — Residents who have submitted applications for absentee ballots for the November general election may begin getting them soon.

Local clerks and their staff have been sending out applications to those who choose to vote absentee. Now they await the rush of returned ballots, which could number in the thousands.

Alpena Clerk Anna Soik said the city has a permanent absentee voting list with names of people who want the city to send them absentee ballot applications before each election. She said there are currently nearly 1,800 registered voters on the list and applications have already been sent to them.

Now, Soik said, the city is almost ready to send out the ballots to those who requested them.

“We don’t have the ballots in yet, but I hope we will have them on Thursday and then we can begin sending them out,” she said. “Then people can return them in our drop box outside city hall, mail them to us, or drop them off in the clerk’s office in person.”

Soik said the popularity of absentee voting is great for making voting easier for those who may struggle to vote on election day. But it does create more work for election officials because of the process of sending out applications and ballots along with verifying and filing them when the ballots are returned.

“Absentee is convenient for the voter, but puts a lot more work on the clerks,” Soik said. “There is so much that goes into preparing an absentee ballot, and now with the change of legislation that voters have until 8 p.m. at the close of polls on election day to return their ballots, that makes it difficult for us.”

Soik said when a person returns their absentee ballot at the last minute at their precinct, the city has to retrieve it and process it at the clerk’s office.

“We have to go and get it, bring it back to the office, check it in, and take it to the AV counting board,” she said. “So, the sooner voters can get their ballots and get them returned, the better. I don’t want to rush them, but if we could have a little more time, ideally, we would have all the ballots by 4 p.m. the day of the election.”

Turnout for the general election could be large, and Soik is already preparing her teams to work at the polls. Soik said turnout for the August primary election wasn’t as high as she thought it would be, but she had a good blend of Democrats and Republicans working the polls.

For the upcoming election, she said, there are enough election workers but more, especially Republicans, are needed.

“I was short on Republican workers, I had a lot of Democrat workers and I needed to reach out to a few people to balance the precincts,” Soik said. “Ideally I’d like to have three and four to balance it out, but it’s probably going to be two Democrats and two Republicans. The law says we only have to have one of each, but I like to have at least two of each if there is an issue that comes up.”

As people begin to return their absentee ballots, Soik said some people don’t feel comfortable utilizing the drop-box. She said new surveillance cameras were installed at city hall that will monitor them which she hopes will help to alleviate any fears about their votes being secure.

People who wish to vote absentee can contact the clerks in their municipality for an application.

The general election is Nov. 8.