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February 26, 2024
Special Edition News Update #2024-2
From Director Brater: Thank You, Congratulations, and Good Luck!
Dear Clerks and Election Staff:
Yesterday, we made history by wrapping up the first statewide early voting period in Michigan. While we are in the midst of final preparations for Election Day tomorrow, BOE would like to thank clerks and election staff for their incredible work so far.
Early voting is a great new option for Michiganders, and it also represents a significant challenge for election officials. This first round was especially challenging to administer as we worked together to implement a variety of new procedures, including setting up election regions, acquiring and using new equipment, notifying voters, checking them in at early voting sites, issuing and tabulating ballots, and (soon) reporting results. And while we worked throughout last year to prepare for early voting, election officials had only a few months between the enactment of implementing legislation last summer and the beginning of the presidential primary schedule, with many key deadlines in December.
In that time, clerks managed to work with their local governments and each other to set up combinations of municipal and county early voting agreements, find voting sites, hire election inspectors, work with BOE and vendors to determine and find the equipment they would need, notify voters of new early voting options, determine how new procedures and technology should work, and much, much more in advance of the early voting period. Clerks got this done with two elections (plus a special election in some areas) in between. In November, a number of clerks took on the challenge of piloting early voting for local elections, an invaluable opportunity for clerks to test out new procedures and equipment, and to help BOE refine them for the statewide election.
Thanks to your tireless efforts, our first early voting period was extraordinarily successful. The greatest testament to the quality of your preparation and work is that for those going to the polls, early voting felt perfectly normal – like it had been this way for years. BOE staff and clerks saw happy voters across the state. Many of them thanked election workers, but perhaps an even greater compliment was simply showing up, getting checked in, voting, and leaving as if it were all business as usual.
Administering early voting alone would have been challenging enough, but election officials are also implementing a bevy of additional new election laws at the same time – including statewide absent voter ballot drop boxes, prepaid postage, a permanent ballot list, early tabulation of absentee ballots for many jurisdictions, and more. Added to this is the unique set of timelines that accompany the presidential primary, especially the many hours spent informing voters how to select their preferred ballot or to get a new one if their preferred candidate drops out.
Voters are embracing their new voting options. Over the early voting period, nearly 80,000 Michiganders cast ballots (The highest total came yesterday, when more than 11,000 people voted). In future elections, we can expect these totals to increase significantly, as they have in other states as voters learn about their early voting options. Voting by mail continues to be popular as well, with more than 930,000 ballots already returned, and the early tabulation of AV ballots has gone smoothly thus far. Combined, more than 1 million voters have already cast or returned their ballots in the presidential primary.
I hope the number of people who have already voted, combined with some additional precinct flexibility, will help lead to a smooth election day. Many challenges remain, including running election night reports from early voting and early AV ballot tabulators for the first time, and completing the election-night and post-election canvasses with these new ballot types and additional procedures.
BOE sincerely appreciates the dedication and excellent work clerks and election staff have shown to get us to this point. After the election, we are looking forward to additional feedback on how we can improve processes for voters and make them more manageable for election officials - whether through training, technology improvements, or proposed legislative changes.
Thank you again, and good luck tomorrow!
Jonathan
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Election Day electronic pollbook (EPB), ballot selection, and Election Day documentation of AV ballot tabulation by voters in precinct
Please make sure you uninstall any practice downloaded EPB software, so you have a fresh start to begin your Election Day EPB download after 4 p.m. today. Procedures for the download remain unchanged and can be found in the Electronic Pollbook Manual.
In addition to review of regular Election Day EPB procedures, be sure to provide election inspectors the 2024 Presidential Primary Electronic Pollbook Addendum, which includes temporary changes to certain EPB procedures for tracking a voter’s ballot selection of a Democratic ballot, Republican ballot, or a ballot without a Presidential Primary (where available). This guide also provides information on EPB procedures to document voter tabulation of AV Ballots on Election Day and accounting for these ballots in the ballot summary. Refer to the 2024 Presidential Primary Electronic Pollbook Addendum in eLearning.
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Loss of power on Election Day
Severe weather is forecast for some parts of Michigan tomorrow, which may result in power outages. Tabulators and some VATs will run for a significant amount of time without a power source if properly charged. Keep all devices, including electronic pollbooks, charging throughout Election Day!
Voting can continue in the event of a loss of power. Be sure to use auxiliary bins for ballots and paper backup pollbooks if the electronic equipment is not working. Flashlights should be available in each early voting site or precinct, and if possible, you should make arrangements to have access to a generator.
In the event of a wide-scale emergency on Election Day, the BOE will send an urgent News Update.
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