LANSING, Mich. — Election confidence has been a hot topic for years
"I think there's a profound obligation to try to help explain what's going on and what's in place and what's there, to help protect the right of every citizen to cast a vote who's entitled to cast one, the protections that would stop one who's not entitled - to stop them from voting - and to make sure that once the votes are cast, they're counted appropriately and accurately, and that there's a record," former Republican Michigan Governor John Engler. "And all of this is in place."
Engler, alongside former Democratic Michigan Governor Jim Blanchard, is part of a bipartisan democracy group known as the Democracy Defense Project (DDP) operating in Michigan and other battleground states.
On Thursday, Engler and other members of the group met for the release of a new poll they had commissioned to gauge how confident voters are in the election process.
According to Richard Czuba, founder of the Glengariff Group which conducted the poll of 800 likely voters on DDP's behalf, two of the 12 potential election-related concerns that they asked respondents to rate on a 10-point scale of importance came out above a 7.0 among Democrats.
These two top areas for concern for these respondents, Czuba said, were potential improper activity that could arise from the Trump campaign, followed by potential foreign interference in elections.
Among Republicans, six of the 12 concerns, Czuba said, were over a 7.0 on the 10-point scale.
Those, he said, included concerns over people not eligible to vote possibly casting ballots, potential voting irregularities, artificial intelligence, the Harris campaign potentially conducting improper activities, foreign interference and that election officials conducting the vote may be behind closed doors.
The poll, Czuba said, also presented respondents with 12 elections practices clerks may use.
According to DDP, the 12 practices presented for respondents' consideration consisted of the following:
- Requiring every voting machine used to be tested prior to every election to ensure the machine is operating correctly and reporting the correct results.
- Requiring all paper ballots to be stored in locked facilities with a documented chain of custody to ensure and confirm that they are secure and to prevent tampering.
- Ensuring that no voting machines are connected to the internet so they cannot be accessed or hacked online.
- Requiring all absentee ballot drop boxes be monitored by video and that authorized clerk personnel collect any ballots daily.
- Requiring that for close results, ballots are both machine-counted and then hand-counted to verify their accuracy.
- Requiring city and township clerks to update their voter rolls and remove all inactive or incorrect registrations on a regular basis.
- Requiring that the number of ballots issued balances with the number of absentee ballots and in-person votes cast.
- Requiring state election officials to use multi-state databases to check for duplicate voters’ registration in multiple states.
- Requiring that the signature on absentee ballots matches the signature in the official voting book before it can be counted.
- Requiring every voter in Michigan who votes in person to present identification before casting a ballot or if they forget their ID, requiring them to sign a legal affidavit attesting to who they are.
- Not allowing ballots to be counted that are postmarked after election day unless they are military or overseas ballots.
- Requiring that Republican, Democratic and other voter interest groups are allowed to assign credentialed individuals to each polling location and absentee counting board to monitor the voting processes and challenge any irregularities.
According to Czuba, confidence levels among respondents increased dramatically in a scenario where all 12 were in place. But when the pollster followed up with the respondent, the majority of voters believed only two of the 12 were current policy.
"There is a pathway here to build confidence in our elections, and it revolves around knowledge and helping voters understand what's currently happening," Czuba said.
The poll did, however, include potential silver linings for trust in elections as Czuba explained them.
Overall, Czuba said, 77% of respondents said they were confident the upcoming November election would be fair and accurate.
In addition, the vast majority of respondents across the board, Czuba said, indicated they trust their local and county clerks.
Two county clerks - one of each of the two major parties - were featured on the panel to discuss the findings and answer questions.
Sitting alongside Democratic Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, Republican Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons suggested the findings show room for optimism.
"I think if you don't remember anything from today, I hope you remember this: our voters trust our process," Lyons said. "They just need to know it is the process. And so, again, that's where these education efforts, that's where encouraging folks to participate really are important."