August Election Risk Limiting Audit Pilots

Another round of risk limiting audit pilots have been scheduled. Risk limiting audit (RLA) pilots will be conducted to verify the August election results of the Washtenaw ISD and Marquette County elections.

An RLA is a comprehensive check that uses statistical methods to confirm whether reported election results are correct and to detect possible anomalies whether from error or possible manipulation that may need further scrutiny. In the two pilots, ballots will be randomly selected based on a mathematical formula to confirm that the ballot tabulators tallied them correctly.

In December 2018, the first RLA pilots were conducted in Michigan in the cities of Kalamazoo, Lansing and Rochester Hills with the goal of determining how risk limiting audits could be rolled out statewide. Further pilots were conducted after the May 2019 election in Muskegon County, Lansing Public School District jurisdictions, and Wyandotte City.

In 2018, the state of Colorado, which has a by-mail election process, used risk limiting audits for the first time statewide. Michigan’s highly decentralized elections system features both Election Day and absentee voting administered by the 1,520 city and township clerks across the state, which is unique for a state of Michigan’s population and geographic size. Other states, including Rhode Island and Virginia, will start using them statewide in future election cycles.

The August pilots will continue the evaluation process started at the December pilot. The pilots will be held as follows:

September 5, 2019 at 9 a.m. - Washtenaw ISD Election (includes Washtenaw, Jackson, Livingston, Monroe, and Wayne counties) – Washtenaw Intermediate School District Vogel Rooms A & B; 1819 South Wagner Road, Ann Arbor

September 10, 2019 at 5:15 p.m. - Marquette County Election – Marquette Township Hall, 1000 Commerce Drive

The pilots are open to the public, and we encourage county and local clerks to attend.

Submit August Ballot Proofs to the Bureau of Elections

Counties please forward a copy of your ballot proofs in PDF format to the Bureau of Elections prior to production. Bureau staff will review all ballots to ensure that they conform to the current ballot production standards.

Submit all proofs by email to the attention of Carol Pierce at PierceC1@Michigan.gov. Please include "Ballot Proofs" and the name of your county in the subject line of your email submission. If corrections are needed or any changes are made to the ballots following submission and/or approval, the PDFs must be re-submitted.

November AV Ballot Application

The printable AV ballot applications on the Bureau of Elections' website have been updated for the November election. Various versions of the form can be found on the Information for Election Administrators page.

QVF Refresh Update

QVF Refresh Software Release for August 23, 2019

Election Inspector. 

• Ability to delete titles already in QVF.
• Inspector assigned a deleted title previously will still display the deleted title.
• Made a payment column available in the title lookup tab.

BOE Closed Labor Day

The Bureau of Elections will be closed Monday, September 2 in observance of Labor Day. The next News Update will be September 3.

Reed College/ Democracy Fund Mailing

Paul Gronke (a professor at Reed College with a long history in election research) is working with the Democracy Fund to do a survey of local election officials. The goal of the survey is to amplify the voice of local election officials for discussions about election administration, integrity, and conduct. This effort is a collaboration between Democracy Fund and the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College. The survey itself should take only 10 minutes and asks for the opinions and perceptions of local election officials on topics such as how election administration has changed over time, the costs/benefits of election technology, and views on various election modernization efforts.

This year the survey will be mailed to a sample of 3,000 local election officials. The mailing will go out this week. Please know this is a legitimate survey, and you should feel free to respond. For more information on the project, including results from the 2018 survey, visit the Reed College information page. 

Rochester Hills City Clerk Appointed to EAC Board of Advisors

Rochester Hills City Clerk Tina Barton was recently appointed to the EAC Board of Advisors through the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The board of advisors is a 35-member board composed of representatives from several national organizations such as the National Governors Association, National Conference of State Legislatures, National Association of Secretaries of State, and others. 

Please join us in congratulating Clerk Barton on this appointment.  We know she will represent Michigan well.

BOE Question of the Week:

Are the 2020 calendars available? 

Answer: Yes. All 2020 calendars are now available on the Department of State website.  The digital calendar will be updated soon.

Have a question you'd like to see
in the Question of the Week?  Send it to Elections@Michigan.gov.