(WXYZ) — With the help of medical students, two patients hospitalized in Ann Arbor were still able to cast their vote on Election Day.
According to an article with Michigan Medicine, student volunteers made themselves available around the clock to assist with emergency absentee voting.
Michigan Medicine says the Emergency Voter Initiative has helped several dozen Michigan Medicine patients request and receive emergency absentee ballots, or use the regular absentee voting process, to ensure their voices are heard in the election.
At 8 a.m. on Election Day, students Shelby Hinds and Eric Rosen helped two longtime voters who had planned to vote in person but were unexpectedly hospitalized on the eve of Election Day.
Michigan Medicine says the students drove first to Pinconning, then to Bay City, to deliver the patients' signed requests for emergency absentee ballots to their local clerks. Then, ballots in hand, they drove back to University Hospital so the patients could make their choices.
The final leg of the journey will be handled by the patients' husbands, who will both return home this evening to drop off their wives' ballots and then go cast their own votes.
Michigan Medicine says patients who are unexpectedly hospitalized and/or have experienced a significant personal emergency in the days leading up to the November 3 voting deadline qualify to request an emergency absentee ballot under state law.