city clerk's office - WKTV Journal

The key to Michigan voting system, and the reason for confidence in local over results, is in the stand-alone tabulation machines, like the one shown here. (Supplied)

K.D. Norris

The national headlines this week are filled with reports and rumors of possible voting machine manipulation — did or did not Russian hackers somehow alter the presidential election? But city clerks in the cities of Kentwood and Wyoming are confident in local voting numbers and want to assure local voters of local voting integrity.

“Wyoming voters can rest assured that every ballot cast has been counted and counted accurately,” Kelli VandenBerg, city clerk for the City of Wyoming. said this week. “We have a number of safeguards in place to assure that voters can have confidence that their ballots are processed properly.”

Kentwood City Clerk Dan Kasunic agreed, and said the bottom line reason is that the State of Michigan uses paper ballots that are tabulated at each precinct using stand-alone tabulation machines, voting machines — and the “tabulators are never connected to the internet.”

“So much of the national controversy has been over other types of ballots or the transmission of results,” VandenBerg said.

Before election day, each precinct’s and county board’s paper ballet tabulators are tested for accuracy — “there is a public test prior to each election, for the public to attend, to prove the accuracy,” Kasunic said.

Voting data cards are sealed in each tabulator by the city clerk before the election. Each seal has a number that is recorded in a paper poll book. The seal number is verified by the precinct workers before the polls open on election day.

“When the polls close at the end of election day, precinct workers print a tape of the results before the card is removed from the tabulator,” VandenBerg said. “The card is then sealed in a transfer bag that comes to (Wyoming) City Hall. That numbered seal is cut and then the data is downloaded and transmitted to the county.”

After votes are tabulated, all ballots are then sealed and stored in a secure location.

“All memory cards are sealed and recorded so they cannot be tampered,” Kasunic said. “The memory cards are complied within the city on a program and then sent by email to the county, and the memory cards are sent to the county. So they have both the tapes from each tabulator and the memory cards”

In addition to the safeguards to protect the electronic data, there are safeguards in place to protect the paper ballots.

“At the end of election day, the paper ballots are removed from the tabulator and sealed in approved ballot containers,” Vandenberg said. “The ballots remain sealed and in the clerk’s custody for the appropriate retention period. In this case the election involved a federal race, so the retention period is 22 months.”

If you are planning to vote in the upcoming Nov. 8 election you need to have registered to do so by today.

As voter registration comes to its final hours, both the cities of Kentwood and Wyoming are reporting — a not surprising — increase in register voters.

“With a national election, we always see an increase in voter registration,” said Wyoming City Clerk Kelli VandenBerg. In an average election, the City of Wyoming usually has about 48,000 — 49,000 registered voters. This year, the city has about 51,500 registered voters in 30 precincts.

“We always see an uptick in the national election because there is a big push to get people registered,” VandenBerg said, adding that groups often canvas events like the recent ArtPrize in downtown Grand Rapids to help get people registered.

Kentwood City Clerk Dan Kasunic agreed with VandenBerg stating that the national election usually brings in a higher number of registered voters. As of Friday, Kasunic could not give specific voter numbers for the city since residents are able to register at a number of locations including the Secretary of State’s office. He said registrations from other locations will be coming in over the next several days.

Kentwood has seen an increase in voters over the past several years. Because a precinct is only allow to have 2,999 voters, Kentwood is beginning the process to split some of its precincts to form two more. However, this will not impact the Nov. 8 election with the city maintaining its current 16 precincts for this year.

As for absentee ballots, Kasunic said the city has about 3,600 and is well on its way to averaging the 4,000 — 5,000 it usually does for a national general election.

The City of Wyoming was more than 3,000 absentee ballots with VandenBerg saying the city is on track to hit the usual 5,000 it has had for a national general election as well. Absentee ballots can be mailed out up until Saturday, Nov. 5. Monday, Nov. 7, is the last day a person can vote on an absentee ballot in a municpality’s clerk’s office.

To receive an absentee ballot you must meet one of the following requirements: be 60 years or older; are physically disabled and as a result, you cannot vote on Election Day without another person’s assistance; you can not vote on Election Day because of the tenets of your religion; you can not vote on Election Day in the precinct where you reside because you are an election precinct inspector in another precinct; you are absent or expect to be absent from the township or city in which you live when polls are open; or you are confined in jail awaiting arraignment or trial.

You have until 5 p.m. today to register to vote as most offices close at that time. To register you need to be a U.S. citizen, 18-years-old by Election Day, a resident of Michigan and a resident of the city or township where you are applying to register to vote. To check and see if you are registered, visit www.Michigan.gov/vote.