OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — Polling place workers are certified to do their jobs on election day. Anyone can apply to work at the polling locations on election day, but individuals that are selected to work must commit to a training program and a long day of work on election day.
Rich VanderKlok is the Georgetown Township clerk. He says the township already has a list of polling place workers created, as well as a substitute polling place workers list for backup.
"We have individuals that have done it for years but we always have new people that apply," he says. "Each polling place worker have to be certified and they have to be recertified every two years. It's rather intense but its hands on as well we have all the equipment all the information, we go through the manual page by page."
Polling place workers are sometimes assigned to help multiple precinct locations on election day. That's what Georgetown polling place worker Nancy Boneburg is preparing for on November 3.
“I’m assigned a precinct sometimes you’re assigned more than one precinct to start with, and we help them get set up for the voters to come in and then during the day you actually go from precinct to precinct to answer any questions, help out where needed and then at the end of the night help them close and make sure they balance," says Nancy Boneburg.
As a polling place worker, Nancy is trained to ensure that each voter casts only one vote.
"You scan their license and the system poll book actually brings up if the person actually has an absentee ballot or if they voted already," she says. "If that happens then there's some things that we have to do in place, like find out if they're surrendering their absentee ballot, otherwise they are not given another ballot, they cant be. They've already been issued one."
Also hard at work on election day are the Absentee Ballot counting boards.
Georgetown Township Absentee Counting Board Chairperson Bruce Ryseyk has been working with election ballots for nearly two decades.
"I have full responsibility of making sure every ballot that's given to me, every absentee ballot that comes down to me gets counted and that we get a total that's the same amount that comes down from the township, that all has to balance at the end of the night."
In order to make each returned ballot count, the ballots must be in good condition to go through the tabulator machines. He reminds voters to not use white out on their ballots and to keep them as clean as possible. In the event that a ballot is not in proper order, the absentee counting board need to duplicate the ballot.
"Two people, a democrat and a republican, they'll review the ballot. In the manual it will tell us exactly what we can accept and what we can't accept and the only way you can accept something like that is we have to duplicate it," says Ryseyk. "Anything that is duplicated needs to be recorded in the poll book and then placed in a box in an envelope specially made for duplicated ballots.
If a voter receives an absentee ballot but decides to vote in person at their polling place on election day, they can. Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck says voters need to bring their absentee ballot to the polling place in order to surrender the ballot.
"If you decide to do that you need to take your absentee ballot with you. That basically gets turned over at the precinct and then you vote a normal ballot," he says.
And if a voter misplaces an absentee ballot or never receive one they applied for, they can sign a legal document at the polling place on election day, and only that vote will be recorded. However, if an absentee voter wants to spoil a ballot-- which means they voted one way and want to change their vote completely, the voter must do so in person at the local clerk's office the day before election day, November 2 by 4 p.m.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.