Peninsula Township Tests Voting Machines, Prepares Election Team for August Primary

Yesterday I attended the Peninsula Township Election Commission meeting. It’s a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the people and machines that keep the election process humming along. There’s a lot happening as we head into the August 4 primary, and then forward to the Nov. 3 general election.

The Election Commission, which includes Township Clerk Becky Chown, Supervisor Maura Sanders and Treasurer Katie Clark, finalized staffing and pay rates for the primary, and officially appointed the crews handling absentee and early voting.

Only the clerk, deputy clerk and/or clerk assistants are involved in the preliminary accuracy testing, so Becky also walked through that process which precedes every election.

Poll Workers Appointed, Mostly Familiar Faces

The commission voted to appoint election inspectors and chairs for both precincts, along with alternates, for the August primary. According to Becky, every person on this year’s roster has already been trained, and most are returning veterans of the job.

The absentee voter counting board will see a few changes. Of two longtime chairs, one won’t be available in August but will return in November; the other has decided to step back from the chair role after several years, though she plans to keep working as an inspector. An alternate has been lined up to fill the chair vacancy.

The board that receives and processes ballots will be staffed by the same crew that has done the job since Becky took office in 2019. The appointments were voted in by roll-call vote.

Pay Rates Set to Match County-Wide Agreement

The commission also approved a motion setting pay for election workers at $18 an hour for inspectors and $20 an hour for chairs — the same rates paid in 2024.

Becky noted this isn’t just a local decision: townships across Grand Traverse County agreed to hold pay steady together, specifically to avoid “poaching,” where a township offering higher wages could pull trained workers away from neighboring jurisdictions at the last minute.

This year, for the first time, the state is requiring townships to formally record these pay decisions by motion rather than simply setting rates administratively.

Early Voting: a Five-Township Partnership Based in East Bay Township

Peninsula Township is one of five Grand Traverse County jurisdictions that have teamed up to offer early voting at a shared site in East Bay Township, since none of the smaller townships — Peninsula included — have the facilities or staffing to run early voting on their own. Becky noted that some townships, like Union Township with roughly 400 voters and a part-time clerk, simply have no space to host it.

Only three Peninsula Township residents are expected to work early voting shifts this August, but the township’s share of the cost isn’t based on staffing alone — it’s calculated proportionally, based on each jurisdiction’s share of total voters across the five participating townships. The state reimburses townships $15 an hour for their portion of early voting inspector pay, but only for early voting hours specifically.

Early voting runs nine consecutive days, beginning Saturday, July 25, through Sunday, August 2, and voters must travel to the East Bay Township offices to participate. No voting takes place the following Monday; Election Day is Tuesday, August 4.

Accuracy Testing Already Underway

Ahead of any ballots going out, the clerk’s office conducted preliminary accuracy testing on the township’s Election Day ballot several weeks ago. Becky noted that this step is critical, as some clerks who’ve skipped pre-testing in the past have had to recall mailed ballots after errors were discovered.

“Preliminary accuracy testing is a vital step that verifies the accuracy of the ballots and election media in every piece of election equipment we use on Election Day,” she said. “That’s why we do it before we send out any absentee ballots. If there’s a problem, we need to know it as soon as possible.”

She added that since Peninsula Township has two precincts and two absentee voter counting boards, that means testing four tabulators and two voter assist terminals.

“All the zero tapes and totals tapes printed by the tabulators from the preliminary accuracy testing are required by law to be kept sealed in the same container as the public accuracy testing ballots, zero, and totals tapes so that I can prove, if need be, that all the equipment was properly tested and found to work properly.”

Separately, the five early-voting townships met last week to conduct preliminary accuracy testing on early voting ballots across all 11 precincts involved — a lengthy process given the number of jurisdictions. A public accuracy test for the early voting ballots, treated as a fully separate election under state law, is scheduled for this Friday.

Yesterday’s meeting included a hands-on walk-through of ballot and tabulator equipment, including a review of the tamper-evident seals used to secure ballot containers between testing sessions.

Becky also tested the Voter Assist Terminal (VAT), which allows voters to make selections on a touchscreen (with features like audio ballot, sip-and-puff, or other adaptive input options). The machine then marks those selections onto a paper ballot, which is then inserted into the ballot tabulator machine. Every polling place is required to have at least one VAT available.

During the ballot testing session, Becky explained how the township’s tabulator handles a common primary-election pitfall: crossing party lines on a partisan ballot. If a voter marks candidates from more than one party in the partisan section, the machine flags each affected contest individually before the ballot is cast.

If the voter proceeds anyway, none of the votes in the partisan section will count, since the tabulator cannot determine which party the voter intended to support once a crossover occurs. Nonpartisan contests and ballot proposals are unaffected.

When a Party Affiliation is Required

The clerk also fielded a question about when Michigan voters must declare a party affiliation to participate in an election. She clarified that under Michigan law, this requirement applies specifically to the presidential primary, noting that she often hears frequent objections from voters about it before each presidential cycle.

In the August primary and other non-presidential primaries, voters are NOT required to declare a party; however, they still cannot vote across party lines within the partisan section without triggering the crossover rule.

In the November general election, voters can split their ticket freely among candidates from any party, since the general election ballot is not organized by party affiliation in the same way.

Absentee Ballot Security Explained

The discussion also touched on absentee ballot security. The clerk described the township’s signature verification process as a key safeguard against fraud. She noted that election officials undergo annual training and rely on personal familiarity with voters’ signatures and circumstances when verifying absentee ballots, while requiring documentation or in-person follow-up when they lack that familiarity.

She said this discretion allows the township to accommodate voters facing medical or physical challenges that affect their signatures, while still guarding against attempts to submit fraudulent ballots on another person’s behalf.

Why You Might Get Election Mail Addressed to Your Home’s Previous Owner

Regarding voter list maintenance, the clerk explained that election officials cannot cancel a voter’s registration based on secondhand information, even from a close relative, without direct communication from the voter, such as a signed note or a cancellation submitted through the state’s online system.

She said state law requires a voter’s registration to remain in place through two federal election cycles after officials become aware the person may have moved, which she acknowledged can lead to residents at a former voter’s address continuing to receive election mail in that person’s name.

Also, voter registration information does not automatically transfer between states when someone moves. Michigan clerks typically learn of address or status changes only through direct notice from the voter or through a notification from the Secretary of State’s office, such as when someone applies for or relinquishes a driver’s license.

Know Your Voting Rights

A few reminders on Michigan election rules, drawn from questions that came up during the meeting:

Overvoting and crossover votes. In a partisan primary (such as the August 4 primary), you do not have to declare a single party in order to vote. Even so, you may not split your votes between two parties’ candidates in the same section. It doesn’t just spoil part of your ballot — it voids the entire partisan section. The tabulator has no way to know which party you “really” meant to vote for.

This is different for the November general election. In the November general election, you also do not have to declare a single party in order to vote. However, voters may split their ticket freely among candidates from any party, since the general election ballot is not organized by party affiliation in the same way.

Presidential primaries are the exception. Michigan law requires voters to declare a single party in the presidential primary only.

Moving away? Tell your clerk directly. State law requires clerks to hear directly from a voter — by signed note or by cancelling registration online through the Michigan Voter Information Center — before removing them from the rolls. Clerks cannot act on secondhand reports, even from family members, and by law must wait through two full federal election cycles before cancelling a registration without direct voter confirmation. That’s why residents sometimes continue to receive election mail addressed to previous owners of a property.

Track your ballot online. Through the Michigan Voter Information Center, voters may check registration status, confirm when a ballot was mailed, verify whether a returned absentee ballot has been received by the township and more.

For more info about the voting process, check out the Michigan Ballot Production Standards here.