June 9, 2017

MERIT Email to Discontinue Service

On June 30th, BOE's contract with MERIT email will expire.  As a result, BOE has developed a new plan for disseminating communications and most importantly, facilitating a point of contact for your voters.

How MERIT currently works

Each jurisdiction has a MERIT account that jurisdictions must log into to check the email regularly or setup automatic forwarding.  This email address is listed on the Michigan Voter Information Center (MVIC), Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), the Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF) websites, as well as others for voters to use.

How the new system will work

BOE will now facilitate the forwarding of emails through a free email service called GMX.  This means, you will no longer have to login to an account but will need to keep your email address updated with the BOE to ensure communications from both BOE and your voters are being forwarded properly.  The email address listed on the sites above will be the same as before but end in @gmx.us.  For example, county03@miqvf.org becomes county03@gmx.us.

Steps you need to take

Clerks will be given an assignment titled "Jurisdiction Election Email" in the eLearning Center that will request one primary email address for your office.  This could be the clerk's email address but we highly recommend using an email address that:

• will be checked the most frequently 
• multiple people can access

If you use MERIT for correspondence, you should notify your contacts that you will no longer be using that account and provide them with a new contact email.

As always, while the clerk is given the assignment, anyone in the office will be able to access the assignment and may complete it on the clerk's behalf. Only one "forward to" email for the city, township, or county office is required.

Forwarding to Multiple Accounts 

If you currently have MERIT forwarding to multiple accounts, most email providers will allow you to set up forwarding and we recommend you do that with whatever account you have chosen to be your primary email address if multiple people cannot access that account.  If members of the clerk's office simply want access to the News Update weekly, they should use the Subscribe button at the bottom of this newsletter to subscribe directly.

We appreciate your cooperation by quickly completing the Jurisdiction Election Email form and providing an email contact.  If you do not respond timely, the initial forwarding email will be the clerk's email address on file with the eLearning Center.

In the meantime, please continue to check MERIT email.  We will notify you when the transition is complete.

IN THIS ISSUE

• MERIT Email to Discontinue Service
• EAC Alert
• Local Election Survey

Election Assistance Commission (EAC) releases Alert

Earlier this week, the EAC released an alert in response to the news stories about phishing attacks targeting local election officials.  From all sources available for the BOE to review, this did not affect election officials in Michigan.  However, it is important to remain increasingly diligent and aware of this type of attack.

Local Election Official Survey from CalTech

Charles H. Stewart of MIT has recently sent local jurisdictions a follow up survey to his survey in 2013.  That survey was very valuable to the Presidential Commission on Election Administration(PCEA)'s final report.  The results helped the commission frame its message about the nature of the challenges faced by local officials because of aging election infrastructure.  It also helped the Commission understand how the needs/worries of smaller jurisdictions differed from larger jurisdictions. 

If you have received this follow up survey, it is a legitimate source and we encourage you to complete it.  This is the official link.

Helpful Links