Kent County election officials are taking steps to address the public’s concerns about the integrity of the 2024 election, in contrast with officials at the Secretary of State who are taking a different approach.

Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons, a former Republican state lawmaker from Alto, told WZZM her office is working to add watermarks to election ballots for November at the request of concerned voters.

“We did hear in our conversations with the public that watermarking would be something that they’d like to see,” Posthumus Lyons said.

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“It’s an added security feature where there’s an imprint on the fibers of our ballots, where, when you hold it up to the light, you can see that imprint, and it will say, you know, ‘official ballot,’” she said.

The intent is to provide another safeguard to ensure voters are confident their ballots are counted accurately, boosting trust in a key area of a battleground state during a contentious 2024 presidential election.

“I just want to do everything we can to give the public confidence in this process and the outcome of their election,” Posthumus Lyons said. “And if we can put watermarks on our ballots so the voters can ensure that those are official ballots that they are casting their votes on, that’s, I think, a very good thing.”

“A ballot isn’t simply just a photocopy of a paper,” she explained. “It’s something that we work with programming to make sure the ballots are programmed to be tabulated correctly. So, the ballots are, you know, they’re on official stock, and we want to make sure that the voters have an opportunity to really sense that and feel that and know that.”

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The cost to implement the improvement is roughly one cent per ballot, equating to about $6,000 for the 600,000 ballots set to be printed for Kent County, WZZM reports.

“That’s a very worthy expenditure to make when we’re talking about the public trust in the process, and when we’re talking about ensuring security and integrity,” Posthumus Lyons said.

The move stands in stark contrast to the approach to the 2024 election from officials at the Michigan Secretary of State, who have spent countless taxpayer dollars on attorneys to fight against concerned citizens in court.

Among numerous cases filed against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is a lawsuit from 130 Michigan voters concerned about “unlawful guidance for elections” issued by Benson since she took office, much of it pertaining to how Democrats implemented Proposal 2 election reforms approved by voters in 2022.

“Petitioners have reason to believe (Proposal 2) resulted in a number of unconstitutional revisions to the Michigan Constitution, and subsequent new election laws, making it impossible for the State of Michigan to guarantee all legally eligible Michigan voters a free, fair, lawful, secure, and transparent election process in the 2024 elections,” the lawsuit reads.

The plaintiffs argue Benson’s office ignores, subverts, or rewrites Michigan election laws she doesn’t like, noting testimony from Benson attorney Heather Meingast during a Michigan Court of Appeals case that forced Benson to rewrite poll challenger guidance.

For laws Benson doesn’t like, “we might just choose not to do it … we could leave that statute sitting there and could continue to issue instructions and give guidance, and somebody would probably sue us,” Meingast said.

That’s exactly what has happened, with at least seven courts ruling various aspects of Benson’s election guidance unlawful, from restrictions on poll workers, to carrying firearms in polling places, to a “presumption of validity” for absentee voter signatures.

Others have taken issue with Benson’s support for a new law that will prevent county election officials from investigating voter fraud, and her refusal to vet the state’s bloated voter rolls, which contain 105% of the state’s voting age population.

Instead of working to address those issues, Benson has focused instead on campaigning for Democrats, and weaponizing tax dollars by promoting voting through youth outreach, Veterans Affairs sites, and Small Business Administration facilities in Democratic areas of the state.

Benson has also called on Michiganders to report their neighbors for election “misinformation,” and implored the media to unite with Democrats to “protect the minds of voters” in 2024.

All of the above and more has compelled former Michigan Secretary of State turned state Sen. Ruth Johnson, R-Holly, to dub Benson “Michigan’s most partisan Secretary of State who has violated more laws and the Constitution than all secretary of states in recent history.”