Buyer’s Remorse? Vote Twice, Trump Says: Where it’s Legal

In Michigan and a handful of other states, voting in an election is a little like buying a car from a shyster who uses deceptive selling practices to unload a lemon. Buyer’s remorse or lemon laws provide some wiggle room for a do-over. So, if you think the presidential candidate you voted for isn’t road worthy or might get you killed, you can ask that your old ballot be destroyed and vote again in some places.

It’s fairly easy to request a voting do-over in Michigan. Just put on your best what-have-I-done? face and pop into your local clerk’s office by 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7, and ask for a chance to vote again. Actually, forget the face. All you have to do is ask. As they come in to county clerks offices, absentee ballots are filed by precinct, so they’re easy to find. The original ballot will be marked “spoiled” and you’ll be able to blot out voting mistake as if it never happened.

Wisconsin, Minnesota and Pennsylvania are also buyer’s remorse states, and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is making sure voters know about it. Campaigning in Wisconsin Tuesday, Trump said FBI Director James Comey’s bombshell announcement that investigators will revisit the Hillary Clinton email scandal may give pause to some voters who have already marked their ballots for the former secretary of state.

“For all those voters who have buyer’s remorse, Wisconsin is one of those several states where you can change your early ballot if you think you’ve made a mistake," Trump told supporters. “A lot of stuff has come out since your vote. If you live here, or Michigan, Pennsylvania, or Minnesota, you change your vote to Donald Trump.”

Of course, the opposite is true as well. Voters who have “Trump remorse” can ask for new ballots, too. Some of his supporters likely cast their ballots before his campaign was embroiled in controversy by an “October surprise” — the release of videotapes that showed the businessman, real estate tycoon and reality television star bragging about sexually assaulting women.

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Wisconsin is especially forgiving of wishy-washy voters, and voters there can ask for a couple of do-overs after they have cast their initial absentee ballots. The deadline to ask for a new ballot passed Thursday, not as quietly as in the past, given the attention Trump has given the little-used law.

“It is something that has always been an option in Wisconsin, but very few people ever do it,” Reid Magney, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Elections Commission, told The Atlantic. It is also unclear how many people asked for new ballots this year. Magney said clerks wanted clarification about what was allowed, but only “a handful” of people had asked for new ballots in Milwaukee by Monday.

The deadline for a do-over vote has also passed in Minnesota. It was Nov. 1. In Pennsylvania, absentee voters who want to change their vote can show up in person at the polls and void their absentee ballots there.

It’s doubtful Trump’s gambit will pay off, experts say.

More than 22 million ballots have already been cast in the historic election, most of which were cast before Comey’s bombshell announcement, The New York Times reported. And the option for a do-over vote is the exception in voting laws across the United States.

Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center in California, told The Atlantic that early voters typically are not easily swayed once they have made up their minds. “The overwhelming evidence is that people who vote early have made their minds up,” he said.

A Marquette University Law School poll of likely Wisconsin voters released Wednesday seems to back that up, revealing “the Comey effect” resulted only a modest shift in Clinton’s support and showing a 6-point lead mirroring earlier polls.

Absentee Voting in Michigan

In Michigan, first-time absentee ballots can be cast in the days before the election.

Voters have until 2 p.m. Saturday to submit an absentee ballot request to their local clerk if they want the ballot mailed to them.

Voters can still get an absentee ballot on Monday, but would have to vote at the clerk’s office

Voters who have received absentee ballots, but haven’t returned them and don’t plan to vote at their local precincts on Election Day must return the ballot to their local clerk by 8 p.m. Tuesday, when polls close.

Photo by Lance Fisher via Flickr Commons