Michigan clerks prepare election security ahead of Nov. 8

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - On Nov. 8, Michiganders will be casting their ballots.

With concerns over foreign interference in our election system, Michigan Clerks said they are ready for the election with people working to make sure it’s safe and secure.

Related: Ingham County Clerk’s Office address election intimidation

Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope was busy preparing ahead of Election Day. He knows a cast ballot is only the beginning of its journey.

“There’s just a lot of security on the back end,” Swope said.

The process begins long before voters even show up to the polls. First, voters are assigned a ballot.

“They look the voter up, they figure out what precinct they’re in,” Swope said. “We have to assign the specific ballot for the specific voter. We’ve got forty-five different ballots and they have to get the right one.”

Each voter is assigned a specific ballot number. When the ballot is returned, clerks make sure the ballot number matches. Signatures on the ballot are also compared to driver’s license signatures.

Early votes are kept in a locked room, where they will stay until they are counted on Election Day.

“We keep the ballots safe secured locked,” Swope said. “We balance counts daily of how many we receive.”

Swope and his team tested four high-speed counting machines to make sure they were accurate.

It’s a big job for Swope and the highly-trained election volunteers.

“We have a great pool of people,” Swope said. “We have over 500 people that are going to be working on election day.”

He said the voter ID requirement makes him feel confident in the process. Swope said in a typical election, they have no more than one or two people that don’t show their ID and when that happens, other security steps are in place.

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