Clerks coordinating an Early Voting region (for either single-municipality, municipal, or county agreements) for the May election are now able to configure Early Voting EPB devices in QVF. These steps include the following:

• Adding election inspectors as EV EPB users
• Establish EV EPB devices and multifactor authentication
• Assigning precincts and jurisdictions to EV site tabulators
  • Optional, only for regions with multiple tabulators in an EV site

For instructions on adding this information, see the “Early Voting EPB QVF Setup Guide” in the eLearning Center.

Before completing these steps, clerks and EV coordinators must establish early voting regions and sites in the “Early Voting” module under “Elections” in QVF. For instructions on setting up the regions and entering sites and hours, see the “Early Voting Region QVF Setup Guide” in the eLearning center.

All of these steps must be completed prior to accessing the Early Voting EPB during the early voting period. Please note that, unlike the Election Day EPB, the Early Voting EPB does not require a software or file download. Similar to QVF, the Early Voting EPB is accessed through a browser with a secure connection.

Friday, April 26, 2024, at 5 p.m. is the deadline for electors to submit a written request to spoil their absent voter ballot and receive a new absent voter ballot by mail, and the deadline for electors who have returned their absent voter ballot to submit a written request in person to spoil their absent voter ballot and receive a new absent voter ballot in the clerk's office.

Friday, May 3, 2024, at 5 p.m. is the deadline for electors who have lost their absentee ballot or not yet received their ballot in the mail to submit a written request to spoil their absent voter ballot and receive a new absent voter ballot by mail.

Monday, May 6, 2024, at 4 p.m. is the deadline for electors who have lost their absentee ballot or not yet received the ballot in the mail to submit a written request to spoil their absent voter ballot and receive a new absent voter ballot in the clerk’s office.

IMPORTANT! Early Voting equipment order - Fulfillment: For all county and local clerks that requested tabulators, ballot on demand, VAT or other large equipment to purchased by the State of Michigan, submit your completed acceptance forms ASAP to MDOS-BOEOperations@Michigan.gov. Ensure the completed acceptance forms match the equipment ordered for your county and jurisdiction. Delays in receiving this form will delay EV reimbursement and round 2 requests.

Early Voting grant application - Round 2: Utilize this application form if you need to order early voting equipment prior to the August/November elections. The county clerk’s application should include the needs of all jurisdictions within your county. Coordinate with your jurisdictions to make sure they can request what they need and are set up for success in future elections. Applications are due April 26, 2024. Late applications will not be accepted. You will be required to buy direct from a vendor and submit for reimbursement if you don’t make this deadline. Fulfillment of additional requests will be prioritized based on funding available from Round 1 orders, reimbursements, and countywide agreements over single jurisdictions.

Early Voting grant reimbursement - Round 1: Utilize this form to submit reimbursement claims for equipment you bought prior to the presidential primary and included in your Round 1 early voting grant application. Reimbursement claims must be submitted by May 1, 2024.

Presidential Primary: Currently, county and local clerks can electronically submit a reimbursement form for expenses attributable to the Feb. 27, 2024 Presidential Primary. To prepare, clerks should review the Reimbursement Guidelines for the 2024 Presidential Primary document, available in eLearning. In order to be reimbursed, claim forms must be received by May 27, 2024. This deadline is set by statute, and we cannot process any forms received after this date.

Prepaid postage and drop box for 2023 elections: We are working improve our reimbursement processing time on prepaid postage and drop box (including security camera) requests. We discovered that because of an Outlook inbox issue, we may not have received all submissions for calendar year 2023 drop box and prepaid postage. If you have not received your reimbursement or any communication from us related to additional documentation for reimbursement submissions in 2023 for either drop box or prepaid postage claims, please email MDOS-BOEreimbursement@michigan.gov as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.

BOE invites all local election officials who are participating in this May’s election to join the Election Day Information Sharing Room. The purpose of this room is to share election-related information, in particular information regarding incidents that have occurred, between local government officials, local election officials, and the Michigan Election Incident Response Team. You may log in and use the chat area to stay informed and report any election security related incidents directly or request guidance on security related issues. Information shared in this room should be considered raw information and should not be shared with the public or the media. The room will be open May 7 from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

Attendance in this room is optional, and you may drop in and out throughout the day for updates. 

Access to this room is by request only. Once requested, you will receive a link to the session. The session will be on the Adobe Connect Platform which may require a download on your system. Click the link below to register for the upcoming May 7 election.

Local Election Officials Election Day Information Sharing Room (csod.com)

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.

In our eighth installment, we featured ADA guidelines for polling places. This article is prepared by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. It focuses on Polling Place Accessibility and the Americans with Disability Act. Elections officials should find this useful in completing the polling place accessibility checklist. The article can be found here: ada.gov/resources/polling-places-checklist/.

Departmental Analyst 9-11 Data & Programs Section: This position serves as the street index and addressing administrator for the Michigan Qualified Voter File (QVF). QVF is used by all election officials, county, township, and city, statewide. This position must analyze and coordinate all activities associated with the data integrity of the street index of the QVF. Salary: $49,712.00 - $77,916.80. Posting closes April 26 at 11:59 p.m.

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 the tally sheet with write-in candidate names.

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 Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (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.

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 preferable 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.

Now that months have passed since our last election, 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 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.

BOE has developed a survey for election administrators to provide feedback on administering early voting in the February election. It contains questions on early voting technology, procedures, training sessions, and materials. We encourage all clerks and election staff to complete this survey, especially those who were early voting coordinators or site supervisors during the Presidential Primary. BOE will be using the responses to assess the development of early voting technology and training materials used for the Presidential Primary, and to develop materials and technology to help conduct early voting in future elections.

The survey is available in eLearning and will be live until April 19.