Local clerks or authorized personnel appointed by the clerk with a May 7 election must be available in the clerk's office for at least 8 hours, offered in some combination on Saturday, May 4 and/or Sunday, May 5. If Early Voting is available, the office hours do not need to be the same hours as Early Voting hours. On Saturday and/or Sunday, voters may register to vote with residency verification and/or request an absentee ballot in person. Voters may take with them an AV ballot issued in the clerk’s office - it does not have to be voted in the clerk's office.

Remember: County and local clerks cannot shorten or extend polling hours unless or until directed to do so by the proper legal authority. If an emergency occurs within your jurisdiction that could potentially interrupt the voting process or that closes one or more of your jurisdiction’s Early Voting sites or polling places, take direction from local law enforcement officials and call the BOE as soon as possible. If it is necessary to evacuate an Early Voting site or polling place for any reason, instruct the election inspectors to take possession of the pollbook before leaving.

If an emergency occurs outside your jurisdiction that raises questions about the possible interruption of the voting process or the suspension of the election, contact local emergency and law enforcement personnel for any security-related concerns but do not make any changes to voting procedures until you receive direction from the BOE. Election Day polling hours cannot be extended beyond 8 p.m. without a court order.

Reminders:

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 early voting and on 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 during early voting or on Election Day, the BOE will send an urgent News Update

In early May 2023, Public Act 25 of 2023 (Senate Bill 259) was enrolled and signed by the governor. The new law does the following:

• Incorporates into statute the new constitutional requirement in Article 2, section 4(1)(b) that MOVE ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received within 6 days after Election Day be considered timely received. In determining timeliness: if the postmark on the AV ballot return envelope is unclear, the local clerk delivers it to the county clerk and the county clerk determines whether it was timely received.
• Requires that, by the seventh day after Election Day, local clerks deliver all MOVE AV ballots to their county clerk. In determining timeliness: if the postmark on the AV ballot return envelope is unclear but the county clerk determines that the AV ballot return envelope or voter certificate was dated on or before Election Day, it is considered timely received.
• Requires that timely received MOVE AV ballots are tabulated by the county clerk in a meeting of the board of county canvassers.
• Instructions on Processing Ballots are in the eLearning Center.

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.

Voters have until 4 p.m. on the fourth day before Election Day to cure a signature deficiency on an AV ballot application and until 5 p.m. on the third day after Election Day to cure a signature deficiency on an AV ballot return envelope. Earlier this year, BOE updated the Absent Voter Ballot Application Signature Cure Notice and the Absent Voter Ballot Return Envelope Signature Cure Form templates to incorporate early voting and the new spoilation deadline, and those templates are available on eLearning. You may also refer to BOE’s Signature Verification Training and Signature Verification and Voter Notification document for guidance on signature matching.

Coming soon to a county near you!

The BOE Training Team is hitting the road to offer our in-person 2024 Election Cycle Preparation Training in all of Michigan’s 83 counties. These three-hour sessions are designed to assist county and local election officials with preparations for the August Primary and November General elections, focusing on election procedure changes, election resources, and lessons learned from previous election cycles. The session is a mandatory component of your required 2024-25 Continuing Education for election administrators and is open to all clerks and deputy clerks.  Sessions are expected to run between May 22 and June 21. Registration for these sessions will be available in eLearning next week. If you are unable to attend the class scheduled in your county, please feel free to sign up for a class in a different county that best fits your schedule.

The following technical QVF and election administration support will be available for early voting and through Election Day:

Thursday, May 2: 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Friday, May 3: 7 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday, May 4-5: 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Monday, May 6: 8 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Election Day, May 7: 6 a.m. until 10 p.m.

NOTE: If your call goes to voicemail, please leave only one message with detailed information about the problem you are encountering. This allows the BOE staff to return calls effectively and to provide help to everyone efficiently.

QVF technical questions: 800-310-5697

Election administration questions: 517-335-3237

PA 81 of 2023 amended the Michigan Election Law to allow jurisdictions to convene absent voter counting boards to process and tabulate absent voter ballots prior to Election Day. This replaced any “pre-processing” of absent voter ballots from previous election cycles. For those jurisdictions who are participating in the early processing and tabulation of AV ballots, please review the guide now available in eLearning.

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.

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 on the Local Election Officials Election Day Information Sharing Room link to register for the upcoming May 7 election.

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