Rochester Hills Clerk Shares Changes, Challenges, and Successes in Administering Elections
(Crystal A. Proxmire, Jan. 5, 2024)
Rochester Hills, MI – Elections have been changing in recent years, and City Clerks like Leanne Scott have risen to meet the new challenges. Scott was a presenter at a recent Rochester Regional Chamber of Commerce Legislative Affairs meeting, where she talked about how changing state requirements have impacted how local elections are managed, and what her hopes are for the next one.
Scott is a seasoned professional who has worked at the City of Rochester Hills for 27 years. She also is the Treasurer of the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks. In 2023 she was named City Clerk of the Year.
Scott was joined by David Dulio who is a professor of Political Science at Oakland University and author of several politically-themed books.
Rochester Hills has a large task around election time. The city has a population of around 80,000, with 61,000 registered voters in 32 precincts, requiring four ballot drop boxes to comply with Michigan law. Scott said the city hired nearly 500 employees for the election, including poll workers, assistance in the clerk’s office, and staff to ensure security.
Scott and Dulio shared some history about elections before diving in to contemporary changes.
Prior to 1845, states were allowed to hold elections any time in the 34 days prior to the first Wednesday in December. The result was that for national elections states with earlier votes could influence the outcomes in states with later votes, and in some cases states with later voting dates were essentially the ones deciding elections.
A uniform system was needed and in 1845 Congress passed a law designating the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November as Election Day. Early November was chosen because so many Americans worked in farming that they needed a day after fall harvests, but before the more brutal weather of winter set in.
In 1892 the first voting machines were introduced. Technology has evolved, and elections have become more inclusive, but for the most part election administration hasn’t had many changes over the years. But the past few in Michigan have been a whirlwind of them. The changes have been aimed at making voting easier for residents, but they’ve also made things more complicated, and costly, for those tasked with running them. “The pressure on clerks’ offices has never been greater,” Scott said.
In 2018, Michigan voters approved “no reason absentee” voting, meaning that anyone could turn in their ballot in the weeks leading up to Election Day. It also made same day voter registration a right. No reason absentee helped to make lines shorter on Election Day, while same day registration did cause some delays.
“Since 2018 there has been one change after the other,” Scott said. In 2021 and 2022, the Census prompted redistricting. And in 2022 Michiganders approved Proposal 2 which added several requirements for municipalities, including early voting, the maintenance of a permanent ballot list, requiring that ballots have prepaid return postage, requiring drop boxes for ballots, and requiring that overseas and military ballots in the mail must be counted up to six days after Election Day.
Early voting was in place for the 2024 election, but Rochester Hills stepped up to be a pilot community for 9 days of early voting in the 2023 election. Not only did this help Scott and her team prepare for the larger turnout of the Presidential election, it served as an example for Clerks across the state to learn from.
“I was not an advocate of early voting, but now I think it’s wonderful. The easier we can make it for people, the better,” Scott said.
For 2024, the city served 999 voters on the first day of early voting, and the number went up each day after. The last day of early voting had 1689 voters. That first day people waited up to an hour in line, but after that the wait time was cut down by half an hour by allowing those who had their ballots already filled out to go to a different line. Each day people started to line up at 7:30am, with the polls opening at 8:30pm.
Early voting polls closed at 4:30pm. Anyone in line at 4:30pm was allowed to stay and line and vote, but those who came after were not permitted. There were people who came after the cut off time who were disappointed, but overall Scott said they got many more compliments than complaints.
Voters still had the option to vote absentee by using one of the drop boxes provided in four locations throughout the city.
Those drop boxes were emptied each day. On one of those days, the police were called.
“We had someone call and say there were two suspicious people at the drop box,” Smith said. “It was two of our own election workers collecting the ballots. Now they wear bright vests that say election worker on them.”
Online rumors of election tampering are spread more quickly than ever, but for local clerks security and election integrity have always been part of the process. Ballots and voting equipment art kept under lock and key, with the locks being changed out each election. Votes are processed with multiple people present. Computer systems track when a ballot has been received, preventing individuals from double-voting. And each signature is compared to a signature on file.
Even with mailed-in ballots, if the signature does not match, Scott reaches out to the voter to make sure that they in fact did submit that ballot, and give them a chance to correct the signature. “It’s so important that people give us their phone number. We don’t give that out, it’s just to contact you if we need to,” she said.
Paying attention to such details requires many eyes, and a well-trained staff. Rochester Hills worked with Professor Dulio and Oakland University to recruit students to work the polls, using a two year grant from the US Election Assistance Commission to aide in recruitment. People of nearly any age can work at the polls on Election Day or for early voting and get paid, which includes paid training as well. Workers do not need to live in the city where they are working.
Moving forward, Rochester Hills is likely to reduce the number of precincts. According to Scott, doing so will reduce costs, and it makes sense as the early voting and absentee voting mean fewer people physically at the polls on Election Day. In line with state law, a precinct can have up to 4,999 voters.
Because of the lines for early voting, Scott is hopeful that the city will approve having a second early voting location, with City Hall being the most likely site. Her biggest wish would be to follow the example of Ann Arbor, which purchased a building to serve as a central location for election equipment storage and for tabulating ballots.
“I don’t think we’re going to get that, but I can dream,” she said.
Other than looking for ways to improve the election experience, Scott remains busy through the year educating residents about elections and the work her office does to keep them safe and efficient.
“A lot of what I do is correcting misinformation,” she said. “I try to take every opportunity to share information with people.” In 2024 election this meant visiting assisted living communities and the OPC to talk with seniors about voting, as well as visiting schools to share information with potential future voters about the importance of democracy. She also makes time to answer questions that come from phone, email, and social media.
“Unless you’re part of it, you do not really know what goes into an election,” she said. “If you want to know, we invite you to get involved.”
To learn more about election in Rochester Hills, including how to vote, how to become an election inspector and more visit https://www.rochesterhills.org/departments/clerk/elections/index.php
Learn more about the Rochester Regional Chamber at https://www.rrc-mi.com/
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