GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Election preparations began before Election Day at DeVos Place.
Grand Rapids was tasked with tallying 25,000 absentee ballots they’ve gotten back on Monday.
However, counting had not begun.
Actions by the Michigan Legislature allow for prep work, which means taking absentee ballots out of their envelopes and verifying signatures (remember, they’re still in secrecy sleeves) to allow for votes to start being tabulated—first thing Tuesday morning.
It’s a big room down at DeVos Place with a small group of dedicated public servants seated at each table — a Democrat and a Republican working together side by side — on the highly anticipated midterm election.
The clerk’s office says they’ve had a lot of new poll workers come through their doors after the 2020 presidential election was so highly scrutinized — especially in Michigan. The clerk says everyone is welcome to come learn the process, much of which is counting and verifying signatures.
This is Richard Grime’s first time involved as an election worker for a major election. He first worked the primary election, saying he wanted to become more involved with the process after 2020.
“It’s part of the process we would do normally. We just got to do it one day earlier,” says Grand Rapids Clerk Joel Hondorp. “You’re going to have these same people, plus other people coming in tomorrow. This is like a warmup ‘til tomorrow. The election workers that are working on stuff today have a good feel for the system and the process, rather than coming in at 7 a.m. and jumping in; you get a feel for the process. I like to think of it like a nice batting practice.”
Preparations wrapped up at DeVos Place at around 5 p.m.
I repeat, this was just getting ballots ready to go into the tabulator on the morning of Election Day.
Also something you’re going to hear repeated a lot — results in Michigan, according to the Secretary of State and local clerks, can be expected by Wednesday evening.
