February 20, 2020

Write-In Filing Deadline The deadline for write-in candidates to file Declaration of Intent forms for the March election is 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28. If a write-in candidate has filed in your jurisdiction, be sure to review the Write-In Section of the Managing your Precinct on Election Day - Election Inspectors' Flipchart.

ID Unconfirmed

First-time Michigan voters who register by mail must comply with the federal identification requirement. Voters may meet this requirement by providing any of the following: their Michigan-issued driver’s license or Michigan-issued state identification number; the last 4 digits of their Social Security number; or a copy of a paycheck stub, utility bill, bank statement, or a government document that lists their name and address.

Most voters meet this requirement by providing a driver’s license number or the last 4 digits of their Social Security number— so the number of voters for whom the process below applies should be small.

Some voters do complete forms without providing these numbers or other ID. This means they are registered, but they need to provide this ID before they can vote. Because voters have up until Election Day to meet this requirement, a voter marked ID-Unconfirmed should be issued an AV application and AV ballot upon request, but the ballot cannot be counted if the voter does not provide ID by Election Day.

To help you explain this process to the voter, we have developed an “ID-Unconfirmed Notice,” which can be printed out of QVF.

If you process a voter’s mail-in registration form without documentation that satisfies the federal ID requirement, QVF will mark the voter record as “ID-Unconfirmed.” The record is also marked temporarily as “ID-Unconfirmed” when a voter has provided driver’s license number or the last 4 digits of the Social Security number. This mark comes off as soon as that information is verified against the driver file or Social Security file. This process may take up to two days to complete.

If you receive a mail-in voter registration application and the voter does not provide information to satisfy the federal ID requirement, you should send the voter the ID-Unconfirmed notice to inform the voter that he or she needs to meet the federal ID requirement before voting.

If a voter requests an AV application by mail, e-mail, fax or phone and is marked ID-Unconfirmed:

• If the voter mailed the AV application at the same time as his or her voter registration form, and the form includes his or her driver’s license number or last 4 of their Social Security number, wait 2 days to see if the voter’s status updates to ID-Confirmed. If the status updates, the voter has satisfied the federal ID requirement. Issue the application without the ID-unconfirmed notice. Because most voters provide a driver’s license number or last-4 SSN with their application, waiting 2 days will significantly reduce the number of voters you need to send an ID-Unconfirmed notice.
• If the two days have elapsed and the voter status has not updated, or if the voter did not provide documentation to meet the federal ID requirement, issue the AV application along with the ID-Unconfirmed notice.

If a voter requests an AV Ballot by submitting an AV application by mail, e-mail or fax and is marked ID-Unconfirmed, issue the ballot along with the ID-Unconfirmed notice. The notice directs the voter not to place the required documentation in the ballot return envelope.

If a voter requests an AV Ballot by submitting an AV application in person and is marked ID-Unconfirmed, the voter can resolve the ID-Unconfirmed status by providing any of the ID accepted as Identification for Election Purposes (except the signed affidavit) or ID that meets the federal ID requirement. If the voter provides any of these documents, update the voter’s ID-Unconfirmed field and issue the ballot without the ID-unconfirmed notice. If the voter does not provide any ID, issue the ballot along with an ID-Unconfirmed notice.

If the voter returns the ballot and has still not provided the required identification documentation, receive the ballot in QVF, place the ballot aside, and contact the voter through any means available (phone, e-mail, mail) to inform the voter that he or she still needs to meet the federal ID requirement. Wait to see if the information comes in by Election Day.  If the voter provides the information by 8 p.m. on Election Day, update the voter’s ID-Unconfirmed field and process the ballot as usual.

If by Election Day the voter has still not provided the required documentation, send the ballot to the precinct or AV counting board for processing, keeping it separate from the other ballots. Instruct the election inspectors to open the ballot envelope to see if the voter returned the required documentation along with the AV ballot.

• If no documentation is provided, the ballot may not be counted and should be returned to the clerk and rejected as ID-Unconfirmed.
• If the documentation is included with the ballot, the ballot should be processed as usual and the documentation returned to the clerk. Update the voter’s ID-Unconfirmed field.

AV Ballot Envelopes

BOE has received reports that AV ballots sent from clerks to voters are being returned as undeliverable because the voter has provided a temporary address. This typically occurs when a voter is temporarily away but has requested an AV ballot at their voter registration address rather than the temporary address.

Please be advised that AV ballots are NOT forwardable. Michigan election law requires ballots to be mailed to the voter’s registration address or to the alternative address provided on the absent voter application. This policy, which has been in place for many years, is further explained in Chapter 6 of the Election Officials’ Manual. The Absent Voter Ballot Application informs voters that AV ballots will not be forwarded and that they should provide an address to mail the ballot, if different from their voter registration address. The outgoing (blue) AV envelopes are specifically printed with “Return Service Requested” to ensure ballots are not forwarded.

If you send a voter an AV ballot that is returned to you because the voter has provided a forwarding address, you should make every effort to contact the voter as soon as possible to determine where they would like the ballot mailed. If you have a phone number or e-mail address for the voter, use that information to contact them as soon as possible. If you can’t reach the voter immediately by phone or e-mail, send a forwardable letter to the voter’s registration address informing the voter that their AV ballot could not be delivered and that they should contact you immediately to provide an updated address to mail the ballot. A sample letter can be found here: AV ballot undeliverable notice.  When you receive an updated mailing address, that address should be printed on a separate label and applied to the outside of the blue envelope to ensure proper delivery.  

We have also received reports that some AV ballot return (green) envelopes do not have the address of the clerk on the envelope. It is essential to include your address in the “to address” block (see red arrow below) on the green AV ballot return envelope to ensure the ballot is properly delivered to you.

BOE is in regular contact with the United States Postal Service. Please be assured that USPS is working closely with our office and with local clerks to ensure delivery of ballots. Making certain that all necessary information is included on envelopes will help ensure this effort is successful (please also review last week’s News Update article on the importance of including a Facing Identification Mark [FIM] on envelopes).

IN THIS ISSUE

• Write-In Filing Deadling
• ID Unconfirmed Field
• Goodbye Ginny
• QVF Refresh Update
• AV Ballot Envelopes
• BOE Question of the Week

Goodbye Ginny We are both excited and sad to announce that Ginny Vander Roest has left the Bureau of Elections to take a new position with VotingWorks. This is bittersweet news for us. We are sorry to see Ginny go, as she was a tremendous asset for us at the Bureau of Elections and for our clerks. At the same time, we are incredibly excited for her to pursue this new opportunity. VotingWorks is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that has helped Michigan and many other states improve how elections are run. We hope to work closely with Ginny in her new capacity. If you would like to contact Ginny her email address is ginvanderroest@gmail.com.

QVF Refresh Update ID Unconfirmed Provided ability to send AV applications and ballots to "ID Unconfirmed voters. Created a new ID-Unconfirmed notice to send the voter, informing the voter of ways to provide ID and clear the "ID Unconfirmed" flag. Provided new rejection reason "ID Not Confirmed" if ID not provided by 8 p.m. on Election Day. The changes are reflected in Chapter 6 - Absentee Voter Tracking (P. 24) found here: Chapter 6 - Absentee Voter Tracking EPB Ballot Summary Report.  Allowed starting numbers to be the same for more than one ballot style (previously not allowed) Ballot Type.  Prepopulated ballot types for voters with existing AV ballots. Print Queue Sorting labels sent to the print queue by last name, first name, middle name. Password Rules Users cannot re-use the last 24 passwords. *New* Passwords continue to expire every 90 days. Password length must be at least 8 characters. User accounts will be locked if they have 3 unsuccessful attempts in a rolling 120-minute window and users cannot log back in for 15 minutes. *New* Users can only change their password once in a 24-hour period. *New* Users can reset their password after locking their account. *New*

BOE Question of the Week:   Who notifies voters who register within 14 days of an election that they need to re-register with the local clerk to vote in the upcoming election?  Answer: It depends on how they register. Voters who register within 14 days of an election through any method other than in person at the local clerk’s office (or a satellite office) need to re-register in person at the local clerk’s office or a satellite office, with residency verification, to vote in the upcoming election. If a voter registers within 14 days of an election at the Secretary of State’s office or using online voter registration, the voter receives a notice when they register. Voters also get a notice if they register through a county clerk’s office or a voter registration agency (for example, the Department of Health and Human Services) during this time period. If the voter mails a voter registration form to a local clerk, the clerk must notify the voter of the need re-register in person to vote in the upcoming election. This notice will be explained in further detail in next week’s News Update.

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

Helpful Links