SECURE & ACCURATE ELECTIONS

Decorative excitement lines emphasizing the header for visual appeal.

Michigan’s election system is designed with multiple checks and balances to ensure that only eligible voters can be registered and cast a ballot, and that the votes on each ballot are recorded accurately. Read on to learn more.

Secure & Accurate Voter Rolls

Before a voter is registered, election officials verify their eligibility, their identity, and their residency. And election officials work year-round to ensure that Michigan’s voter rolls remain accurate.

Before a voter is registered, election officials verify their eligibility.

When you register to vote in Michigan, you must certify, under penalty of perjury, that (1) you are a U.S. citizen; (2) you are a Michigan resident, and you will have lived in your city or township for at least 30 days by Election Day, and (3) you are at least 17.5 years old, and will not vote unless you will be 18 years old by Election Day.

Before a voter is registered, election officials verify their identity.

Eligible individuals must verify their identity when registering to vote.
If someone registers to vote in person: they must verify their identity by showing a valid photo ID. If they don’t have a valid photo ID, they must sign a legal document called an affidavit affirming, under penalty of perjury, that they are who they say they are. Providing false information can result in a fine, imprisonment, or both.
If someone registers to vote online: they must verify their identity by providing their Michigan driver’s license number or Michigan state ID number and the last four digits of their Social Security number.
If someone registers to vote by mail or through a voter registration drive: they must verify their identity by providing their Michigan driver’s license number, Michigan state ID number, or Social Security number on the registration form. If they don’t provide any of these numbers, they must instead provide their local clerk or a poll worker with a different form of identification before they will be allowed to vote.

Before a voter is registered, election officials verify their residency.

After a city or township clerk reviews and processes a new voter registration application, they verify the person’s residency by mailing them a voter information card. If this card is returned as undeliverable by the U.S. Postal Service, the clerk must send a notice to the voter by forwardable mail asking the voter to confirm their address with a prepaid return postcard. They also must change the voter’s status in the Qualified Voter File to “Verify,” which alerts the poll workers to confirm the voter’s address if the voter appears to vote without having responded to the notice.
Those who register to vote within 14 days of an election must provide additional documentation to their local clerk to verify their residency. This documentation must include their name and current address.

Election officials work year-round to ensure that the voter rolls remain accurate.

All voter registration records in Michigan are stored in the Qualified Voter File (QVF), which is owned and administered by the state. State officials regularly run security and performance checks to ensure that the QVF is operating properly. Access to the system is limited, and those who do have access (such as city and township clerks and their staff) must participate in a specialized training and use multi-factor authentication.
Michigan election officials are constantly working to ensure that the voter registration records in the QVF are accurate and up-to-date. Some of what they do includes:
- Automatically updating a voter’s registration address when the voter updates their Michigan driver’s license or Michigan state ID address.
- Canceling the registrations of deceased voters on a weekly basis based on data from the Master Death Index, Social Security Administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
- Initiating the cancellation process for any voter whose election mail is returned by the U.S. Postal Service as “undeliverable.”
- Using the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) and its secure data-matching technology to compare Michigan’s voter registration records with the voter registration records from participating states to identify voters who have moved to other states and any other inaccuracies.

Form for a voter registration form. There is a focus on a pen on the signature line.

Secure and Accurate Voting

Before a voter is issued a ballot, election officials verify their identity and ensure that they have not already voted. They also ensure that drop boxes are secure and that chain of custody for ballots returned via drop box is meticulously maintained. And before an absentee ballot is counted, election officials once again verify the voter’s identity.

In person: If a voter casts a ballot in person at an early voting site or their polling place, or if they request an absentee ballot in person, they must verify their identity by showing a valid photo ID. If they don’t have a valid photo ID, they must sign a legal document called an affidavit affirming, under penalty of perjury, that they are who they say they are. In addition, if a voter applies for an absentee ballot in person at their city or township clerk’s office, the city or township clerk will further verify the voter’s identity by comparing the signature on their absentee ballot application to their signature in the Qualified Voter File (QVF), which contains the name and signature of every person who is registered to vote in Michigan. If the signatures do not sufficiently match, the election official must reject the voter’s application.
By Mail: Before mailing a voter a ballot, the city or township clerk’s office verifies the voter’s identity by comparing the signature on their absentee ballot application to their signature in the Qualified Voter File (QVF), which contains the name and signature of every person who is registered to vote in Michigan. If the signatures do not sufficiently match, the election official must reject the voter’s application. If a voter requests an absentee ballot online, they must input their Michigan driver’s license or Michigan state ID number and the last four digits of their Social Security number, which authorizes the use of their stored digital signature for signature verification purposes.

Before a voter is issued a ballot, whether in person or by mail, election officials verify their identity.

In addition to verifying a voter’s identity, election officials must ensure that the voter has not already voted before issuing the voter a ballot. To do this, election officials must review the voter’s record, which contains all of the voter’s voting information for the current election, including whether the voter received and returned an absentee ballot, or whether the voter cast a ballot at an early voting site or polling place.
If the voter’s record indicates that they have already cast a ballot–either in person at an early voting site or polling place, or by returning their absentee ballot–they will not be issued a new ballot.

Before a voter is issued a ballot, whether in person or by mail, election officials verify that they have not already voted.

A drop box is a secure, locked structure that voters may use to return completed absentee ballot applications and voted absentee ballots. Drop boxes must be securely locked and bolted down, and they must be designed to prevent the removal of absentee ballots and applications, except by authorized election officials. Currently, drop boxes that were installed after October 2020 are subject to video surveillance. Starting in 2026, all drop boxes will be subject to video surveillance.
Only city or township clerks, their deputies, or sworn members of their staff may collect applications and ballots from a drop box. Individuals collecting applications and ballots must transport them in an approved container, and must immediately return all the applications and ballots that they collect to the clerk’s office, unless they are traveling from one drop box to another.
Unless the drop box is located at the city or township clerk’s office, each time ballots or applications are collected from a drop box, the city or township clerk is required to document the location of the drop box, who collected the ballots and applications, and when they were collected.

Election Officials ensure that Michigan’s ballot drop boxes are secure and that chain of custody is meticulously maintained.

Before an absentee ballot is tabulated, election officials once again verify the voter’s identity by comparing the signature on the absentee ballot envelope with the voter’s signature on file.
If the signatures do not sufficiently match, or if the voter’s signature is missing, the clerk’s office must reject the ballot.

Before an absentee ballot is counted, election officials verify the voter’s identity.

Two white individuals working at a polling location. In the foreground a sign reads "Polling Place. Vote Here Today!"

Secure and Accurate Counting

Michigan’s elections use paper ballots and secure, tested optical scan machines.

Every election in Michigan is conducted with paper ballots. The use of paper ballots with strict chain of custody procedures protects the will of the voters from electronic system malfunctions or hacks, and preserves the will of the voters for any post-election recounts, audits, or litigation.

Michigan’s elections use paper ballots.

Michigan’s tabulators are optical scan machines, which must be approved by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, approved and tested by the Board of State Canvassers, and tested by the Local Election Commission before use. Studies show that using optical scan machines to tabulate ballots is more accurate and produces election results quicker with fewer resources than hand counting ballots.
Before every election, county and local election commissions create the ballots and program the tabulators and Voter Assist Terminals (VATs). Many security features are built into these processes. For example, multi-factor authentication is required to access the equipment, and equipment is programmed using removable media devices (such as USBs), rather than through the Internet, whenever possible.
After the ballots are created and the voting equipment is programmed, local election commissions must test the equipment to ensure that the VATs accurately mark the ballots and that the tabulators accurately read the ballots. These tests are known as Logic and Accuracy Tests. During Logic and Accuracy Tests, election officials feed a set of completed ballots, known as the “test deck,” into the tabulators and compare the results to the correct predetermined results. Any errors that are identified are corrected. If they can’t be corrected, that equipment cannot be used in the election.
Local election commissions must document all testing processes and maintain all testing materials for review and inspection after the election.

Michigan’s elections use secure, tested equipment.

A collection of voting material including instructions for marking your ballot and a ballot inside of a yellow manilla

Secure and Accurate Results

County and state boards of canvassers review records and certify the results. And post-election audits further confirm the accuracy of those results.

After every election, Boards of County Canvassers – each made up of two Republicans and two Democrats – canvass and certify the results of each election in their county.
The county canvassers correct obvious mathematical errors and try to bring precincts into balance, if they’re not already balanced. They also check each precinct’s poll book for completion, check each precinct’s Statement of Votes for internal consistency, and tally write-in votes. After each of the county’s precincts is canvassed, the Board verifies the votes cast for each candidate and for or against each ballot question.
Once the county canvass is complete, the canvassers certify the results based solely on the votes cast by eligible voters in that election and send the results to the Board of State Canvassers. The duty of each Board of County Canvassers, and each canvasser, to certify election results is ministerial, clerical, and non-discretionary.

Boards of County Canvassers review records and certify county results.

The Board of State Canvassers – made up of two Republicans and two Democrats – reviews the results from all 83 county canvasses, ensuring paperwork from each Board of County Canvassers was filled out correctly and that the results of the election were accurately reported.
Once the state canvass is complete, the Board of State Canvassers must certify the results of every statewide election and some judicial races based solely on the certified statements of votes from counties.

Boards of State Canvassers review records and certify statewide results.

Two types of post-election audits are performed in Michigan: procedural audits and results audits.
The procedural audit, which is conducted in randomly-selected precincts throughout the state, is designed to ensure city and township clerks and election workers followed the proper procedures during, on, and after Election Day. Among other things, the auditors confirm that: (1) poll workers were trained, (2) all tabulators were properly tested prior to the election and each tabulator provided accurate results, (3) the number of ballot applications matches the number of voters in the poll book, and (4) all ballot containers had a tamper-evident seal. Auditors also conduct a hand count of all ballots for one statewide race in each selected precinct to confirm that the tabulators correctly counted the votes.
The results audit involves a hand count of a randomly-selected sample of ballots from jurisdictions statewide. Statistical methodology is used to ensure that the sample of precincts is large enough to discover if a problem in the tabulation occurred that would have changed the outcome of the election, and the results of the hand count are compared with the statewide tabulated results. This further confirms that the tabulators correctly counted the votes.

Procedural and results audits further confirm the accuracy of the election results.

Close-up of a person’s hands sorting through a large stack of paper ballots, with a green pencil held in one hand, indicating a ballot counting or verification process.

Sources: