We encourage clerks to reduce their pre-election stress by practicing downloading their Electronic Pollbook files and installing them on their EPB laptop. This practice may require some housekeeping to ensure that your EPB software from the Feb. 27, 2024 election was successfully uninstalled from your laptop. Once you have practiced downloading your EPB software from the QVF and installing the software on your EPB laptop, please make sure you uninstall your practice-attempt download so you have a fresh start on May 6-7. These procedures remain unchanged and can be found in our Electronic Pollbook Manual. If you are a clerk who is hosting voters from a neighboring jurisdiction in a combined precinct due to a consolidated school election, we don’t want you to exclude your neighbors. Please check the Precinct List that will be downloaded into your Electronic Pollbook to confirm all eligible voter records will be visible on Election Day. Refer to the Quick Reference Guide for Multijurisdictional Precincts in Consolidated Elections in eLearning.

Monday, April 22, is the deadline for registering to vote in any manner other than in person at the local clerk’s office and being eligible to vote in the May 7 election. After April 22 and through Election Day, Secretary of State offices and agencies of DHHS (that provide voter registration services) will be providing customers who register with a notice informing voters that they need to take additional steps to vote in the upcoming election.

Any voter registered by mail with a registration form postmarked after April 22 also must be sent a notice. This notice is generated in QVF by clicking on the Voter Notice button. The notice prints in a format that can be folded and placed in a windowed envelope. While this notice always must be sent by mail, we strongly encourage clerks also to use any phone number or email address provided to inform the voter of the additional steps needed to vote in the upcoming election.

The deadline for write-in candidates to file Declaration of Intent forms for the May election is 4 p.m. Friday, April 26. It is important to review the Write-In Section of the Managing Your Precinct on Election Day - Election Inspectors' Precinct Manual. Clerks should remind precinct inspectors of the importance of writing down each name variation, along with the tallies of each, for valid write-in candidates. Clerks should not pre-fill in the tally sheet with write-in candidate names.

We are working with Consumers Energy and DTE to ensure early voting sites and Election Day polling places are not without power while voting is taking place. The addresses we provide to utilities are pulled from QVF-entered addresses. Please ensure all the address information for your jurisdiction is correct, valid, and up to date. This helps BOE support you more effectively as we establish new processes and coordinate utility support.

For prepaid postage: If you have not provided us a correction, BOE uses the address listed as the Business Address in the Clerk Contacts module of QVF unless there is a mailing address listed under the Addresses tab. Every correction incurs a fee, so please limit corrections to permanent location moves. It is greatly preferrable to provide a business address rather than a residential address. BOE is establishing a process to confirm address information has not changed from year to year as well as a secure, efficient way to provide the address information to each county and jurisdiction.

BOE is continuing to recap our recently featured series of videos and articles designed to increase familiarity with general accessibility requirements and best practices. This is intended to be a second opportunity for individuals to watch and read our previously published pieces.

As election officials, it is critical that we support all individuals’ right to vote and provide the necessary resources to help voters feel more engaged and confident.

We believe that this series will be educational and help us all continue to ensure that everyone can vote privately and independently whether they vote at a polling place or at home.

This is our fourth installment, where we featured a video titled, “Information for Election Officials: Assistive Technology.” This video explains what assistive technology is, the wide-ranging types of available tools, election-related uses for assistive technology, and the basic functions of common assistive technology. This 8-minute video was developed by the United States Election Assistance Commission as part of a continuing education program for election officials and their teams.

Jurisdictions must provide the location(s) of their AV drop boxes to BOE so that voters can find their locations at Michigan.gov/Vote (MVIC). Please check your jurisdiction’s drop box locations in QVF and update as needed, which will automatically update Michigan.gov/Vote. To add or update drop box locations in QVF, select Elections > Jurisdiction Hours, and then navigate to the “Drop Box Hours” tab.

Election inspectors for the May election must be appointed by your Election Commission no later than April 16.

Remember: Election Commission meetings are subject to the Open Meetings Act, and formal action must be taken to appoint election inspectors (including receiving board inspectors and AVCB inspectors).

When recruiting election inspectors, you can hire anyone registered to vote within the state as well as 16- or 17-year-olds. In addition, the inspectors can be of any state-recognized political party. Inspectors may not choose “independent.” The Election Inspector Application lists the eligible parties.

Election inspectors appointed by the election commission must have received proper election inspector certification within the last two years from a county or authorized jurisdiction or complete certification training prior to the election they are appointed to serve.

For more information, review Chapter 13 - Appointing and Training Election Inspectors in the Election Officials’ Manual or Recruiting, Training, and Appointing Election Inspectors on the eLearning Center.