#Michigan official calls cops over election-themed toilet display

A Michigan election official thinks a homeowner’s mail-in ballot joke is crap.

Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum saw no humor in the display on a lawn in the town of Mason, Michigan, featuring a toilet with a sign next to it that said, “Place mail in ballots here!”

The homeowner, who was not identified by the Lansing State Journal, also has a sign nearby reading, “Recall Whitmer Now.com,” a reference to an effort to oust the Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, along with another sign supporting John James, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate.

But Byrum didn’t interpret the toilet display as political commentary. Noting many people are voting absentee for the first time this year because of the pandemic, she filed a police report about it.

Michigan law says illegally taking possession of an absentee ballot is a felony which could result in a $1,000 fine and up to 5 years behind bars. More than 2 million Michigan voters could cast absentee ballots this year after changes in election law.

“It’s solicitation of absentee ballots into a container,” Byrum said in a statement. “Our election integrity is not a game. I expect everyone to act appropriately, and this is unacceptable.”

The Democrat said she found it “more than a little ironic” that public records showed the person registered at the address voted absentee for the past three years.

She told the paper ballots have already gone out to local clerks, so it’s possible someone who is unfamiliar with the process could end up flushing their vote by depositing it in the toilet.

“This kind of behavior needs to be quashed immediately,” she said. “They are making a mockery of our elections. I’m not going to stand idly by and watch it happen.”

While President Trump’s campaign website encourages voters to request absentee ballots, he has spent months criticizing mail-in voting, which he believes is more prone to fraud.

With Post Wires