The Department of State will be sending out multiple election mailings in the next several weeks.

The largest mailing will be an early voting informational mailing. In survey responses and other feedback we’ve received, clerks across the state report that many voters are still not aware that they now have the option to vote early in person. Clerks have requested help from the state to get that message out. The Department of State will soon be sending an informational postcard to every household with at least one active registered voter. There will only be one mailer per household (no prepopulated voter information), and a household will receive a mailer only if there is at least one active registered voter at the household (if the household has only inactive voters, the mailer will not be sent).

The postcard is timed to arrive in mailboxes in the second or third week of July. This ensures they arrive shortly before the early voting period for the August Primary. We understand that voters may also be receiving absent voter ballot applications and absent voter ballots at this time, but our hope is the majority of absent voter ballot application mailings will have been completed by that time.

The postcard provides voters information on their voting options for the August and November elections, including early voting, and provides a link to a website where voters can get more detailed information. That website is not yet live, but it will be before the mailer is sent out. You can view the postcard in the eLearning Center.

We hope this postcard is a helpful additional tool to get this information to your voters.

Second, we are mailing out a preregistration mailer to Michiganders who are between the ages of 16 and 17.5, have a Michigan driver’s license or state ID, and are not currently preregistered to vote, informing them of their option to preregister to vote. Individuals will receive this form only if they appear to be eligible to preregister. Individuals with non-U.S. citizen driver’s license or state ID record will not be sent this mailer. This mailer is required by statute to be sent no later than July 1, 2024, under the preregistration law that was enacted last year. Recipients will be directed to the online preregistration site but are also informed of the option to preregister with their clerk, so you may see some increase in preregistrations after this mailer is sent. When individuals preregister online, you will not have to do anything immediately, but you will receive an inbox notification when the individual turns 17.5 and is registered to vote. For more information, see the preregistration guidance in the eLearning Center.

Finally, at approximately the same time the preregistration mailer is sent out, the state is sending out a voter registration mailer to eligible but unregistered Michiganders with Michigan driver’s license or state ID, informing them of their opportunity to register to vote. Individuals will receive this form only if they appear to be eligible to register. Individuals with non-U.S. citizen driver’s license or state ID record will not be sent this mailer. Eligible Michiganders who have not yet had an automatic voter registration opportunity will receive a mailer with a link to online voter registration and returnable voter registration form. Those who have already declined a previous automatic voter registration opportunity will receive a postcard with a link to the online voter registration site. All recipients will be directed to the online registration site but are also informed of the option to register with their clerk, so you may see some increase in registrations after this mailer is sent.

A similar mailer was sent in 2020 and 2022 as part of Michigan’s participation in the Electronic Registration Information Center. However, Michigan’s practice of sending voter registration mailers to eligible but unregistered voters actually pre-dates the 2020 process by many years. For years before Michigan began sending out mailers in this format, the state would send a voter registration form to every eligible driver’s license or state ID holder when they turned 18. With the introduction of online voter registration, this process has become more efficient because most recipients choose to register online rather than mailing back the form to a clerk.

We hope these mailers will be helpful tools to get information to voters. You can view them in the eLearning Center.

As the Bureau is works to improve the services and assistance that we provide election professionals across the state, we are bringing as many expert resources into Michigan as possible. We are pleased to share that for this election, we are working with Tina Barton, who was a long-time election official in the state of Michigan. Tina is a Senior Election Expert at The Elections Group, a team of established professionals. She recently capped a 32-year career as a public servant, serving in various roles at the local and federal levels. The last 16 years of her career have been dedicated to election administration and election safety as the City Clerk of Rochester Hills, Michigan, and as a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

We are excited to partner with Tina and the Elections Group, as she has a clerk’s perspective of Michigan Elections and vast election administration practice and knowledge. We have asked Tina to reach out to county and local clerks individually and to attend clerk meetings and conferences so that you can provide her with feedback regarding challenges you are facing, resources that you may need, and opportunities for the Bureau to improve. Many of you will be able to meet Tina at the MAMC conference next week. We hope you are as excited as we are and will take advantage of the opportunity to share your thoughts with Tina.

She is available to both help you with any questions you may have and to help us learn what the Bureau can do to better assist you with technology and process changes related to early voting, absentee voting, and election day voting.

Both federal law and the Michigan Constitution require that, no later than 45 days before the election, clerks transmit ballots to military and overseas (MOVE) voters who have applied for ballots. The deadline to transmit ballots for the Aug. 6, 2024, Primary is Saturday, June 22, 2024. This deadline always falls on a Saturday and requires strict compliance, meaning that, unlike other deadlines in the election law, the Saturday MOVE deadline does not get bumped back to Monday. You must transmit ballots by Saturday. The QVF Helpdesk will be available from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 22, to assist clerks with questions about using the QVF to issue MOVE ballots. 

If something occurs in your jurisdiction that prohibits you from meeting this deadline (for example, litigation delays or ballot printing), please email Adam Fracassi (MDOS-BOERegulatory@Michigan.gov) as soon as possible.

Download the MOVE Compliance Report

To avoid missing the MOVE deadline, there are many tools available in QVF – including a report that details every MOVE voter in your jurisdiction. The information in the report is populated by the information you have entered in the individual voter’s QVF profile. You can find it under the Reports tab, titled “Military and Overseas Voter Compliance Report.”

Verify the information on the report

Once you have located the report, ensure that every MOVE voter is properly entered into QVF. If you have a MOVE voter who does not appear on the spreadsheet, then the MOVE status in the voter’s profile needs to be updated. A voter appearing on this report is currently registered as a MOVE voter. If the voter is an overseas civilian who has returned to the U.S., you should clear their UOCAVA status. Otherwise, the voter should receive a ballot. All requests for a MOVE ballot submitted on or after Nov. 7, 2023, are valid for every election in 2024. In other words, MOVE voters are not required to submit a separate request for each election in 2024. Note that with the passage of Proposal 2022-2, all voters (including MOVE voters) may now complete a single application to be mailed an absent voter ballot for all future elections. However, MOVE voters must submit an application such as a FPCA each year to ensure MOVE protections and allow enough time for the ballot to be returned.

What happens if the deadline is missed?

For all timely requested ballots, if you send a MOVE ballot late, the MOVE/UOCAVA voter is provided with an extension of time equivalent to the number of days the clerk was late in delivering the ballot, so long as the ballot is postmarked by Election Day. The MOVE ballots received during the extension period shall be counted and tabulated in the final results. MCL 168.759a(16).  

Also note that Proposal 2022-2 provided a required six-day grace period following Election Day, during which MOVE ballots postmarked by Election Day are considered timely received. 

Update your contact information

After the deadline, BOE staff will review this report and reach out to local clerks to troubleshoot any issues that may occur. You may also receive a call from your county clerk. Please make sure you are checking your email that has been provided in eLearning or update it if necessary.  

Be sure to contact us with any questions you may have. We are here to support you, so if you are running into problems, do not hesitate to email Adam Fracassi or Robin Hiar at MDOS-BOERegulatory@Michigan.gov.

Beginning with the August election, the Election Day e-Pollbook will be able to quickly record a voter bringing their AV ballot to the Election Day polling place for tabulation. If a voter brings their AV ballot into the Election Day polling location to place into a tabulator themselves, election inspectors will record this in the EPB using a new “Voter Tabulated AV” button. This functionality will mirror the “Convert Absentee Voting” functionality in the Early Voting EPB and automatically adjust the EPB ballot summary, replacing the previous “AV to ED” workaround in place for the February and May 2024 elections. An updated “Voter Tabulation of AV Ballots on Election Day” guide will soon be available in eLearning.