Bloomfield Township Election Commission Meeting on April 9, 2026

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Transcript

Click any timestamp to jump the video to that moment. Auto-transcribed; expect occasional errors on proper nouns.

1. 0:00

   Good morning. Welcome to the Bloomfield Township Election Commission meeting of April 9th, 2026. It's nine o'clock and just looking around the room here I can see that we have a quorum. All three people are in attendance. Let's start please with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, thank you. So our first item on the agenda is to open, unseal, and power up the touchwriter and the tabulator and open the polls. So Sean's going to complete that task now with opening of the polls. Which, by the way, is a password-protected process, so it's not on the camera. That's why he's turning around. We've got to do that now, too. Whoops. Do you want to plug? It got unplugged. Okay. Okay. Is that one we're going to have to wait on? Booted back up. Yeah. Unplugged. It just moved a smidge. Which is all right, because we'll be actually getting to that a little later, so. The polls are open? Yep, the polls are open. Wonderful. Okay, next item is public comment. Anybody here have public comment? Seeing none. And we'll move on to item number three, which is approve the Election Commission meeting minutes of April of March 2, 2026. So moved. Support. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. Next item is item four, which is the reviewing election procedures that were included in the packet, A through H. Any questions about any of those items? No. Yeah. They're the same ones we see at most of the other meetings, so. Routine for us. Number five is, on the agenda, is to consider the resolution to appoint election inspectors. Those inspectors are going to be the staff of the Township Clerk's Office. My office.

2. 1:15

   Do you want to plug? It got unplugged. Okay. Okay. Is that one we're going to have to wait on? Booted back up. Yeah. Unplugged. It just moved a smidge. Which is all right, because we'll be actually getting to that a little later, so. The polls are open? Yep, the polls are open. Wonderful. Okay, next item is public comment. Anybody here have public comment? Seeing none. And we'll move on to item number three, which is approve the Election Commission meeting minutes of April of March 2, 2026. So moved. Support. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. Next item is item four, which is the reviewing election procedures that were included in the packet, A through H. Any questions about any of those items? No. Yeah. They're the same ones we see at most of the other meetings, so. Routine for us. Number five is, on the agenda, is to consider the resolution to appoint election inspectors. Those inspectors are going to be the staff of the Township Clerk's Office. My office. My office. And materials supporting that are in the packet. Any questions about that? No. I don't. Great. How about a motion? Motion to approve the election inspectors. Support. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. The motion carries. And the resolution is approved. Item number six, consider a resolution delegating election Commission duties to Clerk Martin-Brooke and authorizing his assistance which is item number six in the packet so routine motion. So moved. Support. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. The motion carries. Item number seven is the overview of the logic and accuracy testing procedures and process and results which is will be handled by Sean Mueller. Good evening or good morning. Good morning Election Commission. So as we've done always, all voting equipment must pass the required testing prior to each election. Today's public accuracy test will replicate this process for all to see. All Bloomfield Township voting machines is tested or testing is completed in accordance with the state of Michigan's

3. 2:30

   My office. My office. And materials supporting that are in the packet. Any questions about that? No. I don't. Great. How about a motion? Motion to approve the election inspectors. Support. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. The motion carries. And the resolution is approved. Item number six, consider a resolution delegating election Commission duties to Clerk Martin-Brooke and authorizing his assistance which is item number six in the packet so routine motion. So moved. Support. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. The motion carries. Item number seven is the overview of the logic and accuracy testing procedures and process and results which is will be handled by Sean Mueller. Good evening or good morning. Good morning Election Commission. So as we've done always, all voting equipment must pass the required testing prior to each election. Today's public accuracy test will replicate this process for all to see. All Bloomfield Township voting machines is tested or testing is completed in accordance with the state of Michigan's testing procedure manual for tabulators and voter assistant terminal guidebook. The tabulating tabulator testing includes the use of an outside vendors prepared test deck with a predetermined results spreadsheet for accuracy comparison. The tabulator's tally results tape of all voted ballots must match the predetermined test results spreadsheet exactly to pass the test. The testing deck with the tabulator's result tape and all other testing items are retained for our records and for audit purposes as required by state law. The tabulators are then reset to zero before being locked, sealed, and recorded and distributed to the polling locations on Election Day. The touchwriters testing includes creating ballots for a variety of of additional tests. Some of these would include a program validation test, minimum, maximum votes allowed for ballots by the individual races, votes by position of the ballots that are created, partisan positions are voted, nonpartisan positions are voted, a blank ballot test is created, a hardware test ballot is created. These added ballots are created with an additional test deck that also must be scanned and compared for accuracy. The following successful testings, all voting equipment is stored in a locked, secured location

4. 3:45

   tested or testing is completed in accordance with the state of Michigan's testing procedure manual for tabulators and voter assistant terminal guidebook. The tabulating tabulator testing includes the use of an outside vendors prepared test deck with a predetermined results spreadsheet for accuracy comparison. The tabulator's tally results tape of all voted ballots must match the predetermined test results spreadsheet exactly to pass the test. The testing deck with the tabulator's result tape and all other testing items are retained for our records and for audit purposes as required by state law. The tabulators are then reset to zero before being locked, sealed, and recorded and distributed to the polling locations on Election Day. The touchwriters testing includes creating ballots for a variety of of additional tests. Some of these would include a program validation test, minimum, maximum votes allowed for ballots by the individual races, votes by position of the ballots that are created, partisan positions are voted, nonpartisan positions are voted, a blank ballot test is created, a hardware test ballot is created. These added ballots are created with an additional test deck that also must be scanned and compared for accuracy. The following successful testings, all voting equipment is stored in a locked, secured location for 24 hours surveillance on the township campus. The voting equipment then is delivered to the polling location in a locked and sealed security cart. Then the trained and sworn in poll workers are the only people to have access to the voting equipment prior to the election itself. Any questions? No. Okay. Well, you might notice too, you mentioned it, but I want to highlight it again, which is the idea that this is the first time we're also testing here for the public accuracy test, the voter assist terminal or VAT. It was previously not required by the Bureau of Elections, but it is now, so we will be doing a test of that too. Yep. Okay. So I, and you'll remember too, as Sean highlighted, that this device generates a ballot electronically with the interface for different folks with, with, with folks with different disabilities. It doesn't tabulate anything. It generates a ballot which is then tabulated in the machine. All right, okay, thanks. So Sean's gonna walk us through the tabulator first and you guys want to help out? Thank you All right, so first thing is I'm breaking the seal for the the pre-test decks that were done previously

5. 5:00

   following successful testings, all voting equipment is stored in a locked, secured location for 24 hours surveillance on the township campus. The voting equipment then is delivered to the polling location in a locked and sealed security cart. Then the trained and sworn in poll workers are the only people to have access to the voting equipment prior to the election itself. Any questions? No. Okay. Well, you might notice too, you mentioned it, but I want to highlight it again, which is the idea that this is the first time we're also testing here for the public accuracy test, the voter assist terminal or VAT. It was previously not required by the Bureau of Elections, but it is now, so we will be doing a test of that too. Yep. Okay. So I, and you'll remember too, as Sean highlighted, that this device generates a ballot electronically with the interface for different folks with, with, with folks with different disabilities. It doesn't tabulate anything. It generates a ballot which is then tabulated in the machine. All right, okay, thanks. So Sean's gonna walk us through the tabulator first and you guys want to help out? Thank you All right, so first thing is I'm breaking the seal for the the pre-test decks that were done previously So if I want if I could have some volunteers to come out and help Okay, so there are seven tests for this election and We can oh, it's not even so I can just give you guys Once so we'll go in order. So Val has the first one. So the first one as it states on there is a an Overvote test deck. So go ahead and slide it in And when it comes up it shows that it's an Overvoting on both party or both both races. So in this case though, we're gonna hit cast ballot as is It is accepted

6. 6:15

   All right, so first thing is I'm breaking the seal for the the pre-test decks that were done previously So if I want if I could have some volunteers to come out and help Okay, so there are seven tests for this election and We can oh, it's not even so I can just give you guys Once so we'll go in order. So Val has the first one. So the first one as it states on there is a an Overvote test deck. So go ahead and slide it in And when it comes up it shows that it's an Overvoting on both party or both both races. So in this case though, we're gonna hit cast ballot as is It is accepted it. So then we can go on to the next one. The next one is a handmade testing of stray marks. So there's no marks on the races itself. It's just lying like someone wrote outside the ballot. And I can put it upside down. Yep. You can put it in any way you want. And the machine will recognize that there's no votes cast. But we're going to go ahead and cast as is. Okay. The next one, ballot three, is a blank ballot. So kind of similar to the stray one except there's no writing on it at all. And it's going to ask. Yep. Cast ballot as is. All right. And then ballot four is a yes vote on one of the proposals and over voted on the second proposal. So go ahead and submit that. And it's going to spit it out saying that you voted too many choices on the other race but you're going to still again cast as is. And that will only count for that one proposal. Okay. Ballot five. Hey, good job.

7. 7:30

   it. So then we can go on to the next one. The next one is a handmade testing of stray marks. So there's no marks on the races itself. It's just lying like someone wrote outside the ballot. And I can put it upside down. Yep. You can put it in any way you want. And the machine will recognize that there's no votes cast. But we're going to go ahead and cast as is. Okay. The next one, ballot three, is a blank ballot. So kind of similar to the stray one except there's no writing on it at all. And it's going to ask. Yep. Cast ballot as is. All right. And then ballot four is a yes vote on one of the proposals and over voted on the second proposal. So go ahead and submit that. And it's going to spit it out saying that you voted too many choices on the other race but you're going to still again cast as is. And that will only count for that one proposal. Okay. Ballot five. Hey, good job. Ballot five is the same thing except on the other proposal. It's only one vote on that and then there's two votes on the other one. So it should spit it back out saying there's an over vote on one race. You're going to cast as is. And it will accept. it and do that one race. Next one, this is the correct ballot, so voting one time on each race, or each proposal I should say. Yep, it recorded as is. Same thing with this one on the different spot, on a different choice. And then the last one is a different precinct ballot, it's called. So it should, once you put it in, it will recognize it as a different precinct and reject it entirely, not having you cast the full ballot as is. So yeah, there you go, thank you. So then in total, we should have a total of seven ballots casted. If you guys want to check right here at the bottom where it says ballots number, it should say seven on there. Yep, alright, so now hopefully this guy is, yep, it is, and I'm afraid to move it but we're going to just slightly move it so you guys have access to it.

8. 8:45

   Hey, good job. Ballot five is the same thing except on the other proposal. It's only one vote on that and then there's two votes on the other one. So it should spit it back out saying there's an over vote on one race. You're going to cast as is. And it will accept. it and do that one race. Next one, this is the correct ballot, so voting one time on each race, or each proposal I should say. Yep, it recorded as is. Same thing with this one on the different spot, on a different choice. And then the last one is a different precinct ballot, it's called. So it should, once you put it in, it will recognize it as a different precinct and reject it entirely, not having you cast the full ballot as is. So yeah, there you go, thank you. So then in total, we should have a total of seven ballots casted. If you guys want to check right here at the bottom where it says ballots number, it should say seven on there. Yep, alright, so now hopefully this guy is, yep, it is, and I'm afraid to move it but we're going to just slightly move it so you guys have access to it. Don't want to move too much. Is it ready? Yep. Okay, as Clerk Burke mentioned, this is a new testing required by the Bureau of Elections. This requires a three-step process that I don't have, here we go. So let me open the polls first on this. So if I can have one person. they get to wear these lovely headsets and set and the first part of this testing I'll have you stand over here real quick the first part of this test is a program testing this allows that you are you're going to compare I'm actually gonna compare the ballot with making sure that it matches with what the program has to make sure that so go ahead and we're gonna hit ready for use and poll worker code so the poll worker code and then we'll go ahead and activate ballot and then if you want to go ahead and hit yes activate this

9. 10:00

   we're going to just slightly move it so you guys have access to it. Don't want to move too much. Is it ready? Yep. Okay, as Clerk Burke mentioned, this is a new testing required by the Bureau of Elections. This requires a three-step process that I don't have, here we go. So let me open the polls first on this. So if I can have one person. they get to wear these lovely headsets and set and the first part of this testing I'll have you stand over here real quick the first part of this test is a program testing this allows that you are you're going to compare I'm actually gonna compare the ballot with making sure that it matches with what the program has to make sure that so go ahead and we're gonna hit ready for use and poll worker code so the poll worker code and then we'll go ahead and activate ballot and then if you want to go ahead and hit yes activate this ballot and then this one you're going to yep hit no skip straight to voting and begin voting you can also use on these the buttons you can move around and such and it should if you hear do you hear it saying each audio selection okay if you next and instead of sitting here waiting for you to hear the whole proposal if you want to move it a little bit and if it starts reading make sure that it matches at least like the first couple sentences of everything Did it read the proposal? Yeah. Okay, cool. All right. And then in this case then, since Val has tested the audio and visual work on it, we're going to hit skip. You're going to hit the skip button down there to your far right. Hit skip again.

10. 11:15

    activate ballot and then if you want to go ahead and hit yes activate this ballot and then this one you're going to yep hit no skip straight to voting and begin voting you can also use on these the buttons you can move around and such and it should if you hear do you hear it saying each audio selection okay if you next and instead of sitting here waiting for you to hear the whole proposal if you want to move it a little bit and if it starts reading make sure that it matches at least like the first couple sentences of everything Did it read the proposal? Yeah. Okay, cool. All right. And then in this case then, since Val has tested the audio and visual work on it, we're going to hit skip. You're going to hit the skip button down there to your far right. Hit skip again. And then you're going to print this ballot out because it's required that we need to print it out and then we'll write on it a testing. Blank? Yep. Hit blank record ballot. And this is going to be the public accuracy hardware test. And then it covers the second step, again, the hardware testing too that Val has listened to it all and it matches with what the ballot has been printed as. It takes a second for the printer to activate to the printer. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It should be on. Yep. Oh, there you go. Yep. Starting. It's waking up. There we go. There we go. Now, by the way, each precinct has one of these available. They're set up by election inspectors at the beginning, the same as the tabulator and any individual that wants to use this voter assist terminal can do that.

11. 12:30

    And then you're going to print this ballot out because it's required that we need to print it out and then we'll write on it a testing. Blank? Yep. Hit blank record ballot. And this is going to be the public accuracy hardware test. And then it covers the second step, again, the hardware testing too that Val has listened to it all and it matches with what the ballot has been printed as. It takes a second for the printer to activate to the printer. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It should be on. Yep. Oh, there you go. Yep. Starting. It's waking up. There we go. There we go. Now, by the way, each precinct has one of these available. They're set up by election inspectors at the beginning, the same as the tabulator and any individual that wants to use this voter assist terminal can do that. There's no reason needed. Okay. You can take off your headphones there and then, as you can see, it made a blank ballot of what is. Exactly the same. All right, so now the third and final step for the VAT is to put through the tabulator the test deck that I created earlier from the preliminary testing from the VAT machine. So, Val, if you want to go ahead and put it through the tabulator there. One quick question. Yeah. Before we put anything in, the ballot we created here, we're putting in now? No. No, you've got that. I got that. Okay. These are four others. Four others. There should be, how many are there, five, I think? Five. Five? Yep. There should be five printed from the preliminary test from this VAT machine. Those are all printed from this VAT machine. And they're on the predetermined results. Yep. Predetermined results. Yep. Yep. So go ahead and go ahead. I think this one, yep, is a blank one. The first test was a blank ballot. And go ahead and cast as is. Thank you, thank you. The next one is voting of the max on both races, or both proposals. Yep. who could be a map? All right. You need to be ready to get there, yeah. It's gonna keep out another chart. Let's see. Let's see what's going on. We'll be going on. Yeah.

12. 13:45

    individual that wants to use this voter assist terminal can do that. There's no reason needed. Okay. You can take off your headphones there and then, as you can see, it made a blank ballot of what is. Exactly the same. All right, so now the third and final step for the VAT is to put through the tabulator the test deck that I created earlier from the preliminary testing from the VAT machine. So, Val, if you want to go ahead and put it through the tabulator there. One quick question. Yeah. Before we put anything in, the ballot we created here, we're putting in now? No. No, you've got that. I got that. Okay. These are four others. Four others. There should be, how many are there, five, I think? Five. Five? Yep. There should be five printed from the preliminary test from this VAT machine. Those are all printed from this VAT machine. And they're on the predetermined results. Yep. Predetermined results. Yep. Yep. So go ahead and go ahead. I think this one, yep, is a blank one. The first test was a blank ballot. And go ahead and cast as is. Thank you, thank you. The next one is voting of the max on both races, or both proposals. Yep. who could be a map? All right. You need to be ready to get there, yeah. It's gonna keep out another chart. Let's see. Let's see what's going on. We'll be going on. Yeah. The next one, it's, yep, is the testing of the hardware test, which is, again, it's testing the hardware and then printing off a blank ballot. Yep, hit cast as is. Opposition ones, yep. There you go. There you go. Try it again. Maybe I, because I saw when you put it in, you put it in at an angle, so maybe it didn't read. Try it again. Because it should go. Maybe. It should be. There you go. There you go. All right. Yep. That is it. Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks. Can we close the polls now and generate a report? I'll pay you on the court.

13. 15:00

    The next one, it's, yep, is the testing of the hardware test, which is, again, it's testing the hardware and then printing off a blank ballot. Yep, hit cast as is. Opposition ones, yep. There you go. There you go. Try it again. Maybe I, because I saw when you put it in, you put it in at an angle, so maybe it didn't read. Try it again. Because it should go. Maybe. It should be. There you go. There you go. All right. Yep. That is it. Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks. Can we close the polls now and generate a report? I'll pay you on the court. I'll show you on the court. I'm going to put it in a little bit, so I'm going to put it in a little bit. I keep forgetting we've got a camera over there. Can we print one and then stop? Yep. Is that right? Yep. I just print one and then I will have the commission sign off on them.

14. 16:15

    I'll show you on the court. I'm going to put it in a little bit, so I'm going to put it in a little bit. I keep forgetting we've got a camera over there. Can we print one and then stop? Yep. Is that right? Yep. I just print one and then I will have the commission sign off on them. Again, it's just verifying that was on the predetermined test deck plus the other five that we issued from the VAT should equal up to the amount. 12. Do you have the table with the predetermined results? Yep. The predetermined results. results for the pre-test deck was seven that was matched. You've got the spreadsheet over there, right? Yep. Here we are. I'll look at that. Yep it should be seven but then of course you're gonna add additional ones because we're now doing the VAT. This is total of twelve. Yep. Just this one, not that one. Yep. Okay, right? Mm-hmm. And then this last one is the VAT results. Again, showing one because VAL printed one ballot of the blank ballot of the hardware test.

15. 17:30

    Again, it's just verifying that was on the predetermined test deck plus the other five that we issued from the VAT should equal up to the amount. 12. Do you have the table with the predetermined results? Yep. The predetermined results. results for the pre-test deck was seven that was matched. You've got the spreadsheet over there, right? Yep. Here we are. I'll look at that. Yep it should be seven but then of course you're gonna add additional ones because we're now doing the VAT. This is total of twelve. Yep. Just this one, not that one. Yep. Okay, right? Mm-hmm. And then this last one is the VAT results. Again, showing one because VAL printed one ballot of the blank ballot of the hardware test. And then can you verify the serial numbers for that on the tabulator and the... Mm-hmm. Yep. And then I still have this the seal that I broke with should match the seal from the print. Three, three, four. oh you're looking at the the seal for the memory device oh memory device that's for the which one the tabulator yes oh that's on the the device itself

16. 18:45

    And then can you verify the serial numbers for that on the tabulator and the... Mm-hmm. Yep. And then I still have this the seal that I broke with should match the seal from the print. Three, three, four. oh you're looking at the the seal for the memory device oh memory device that's for the which one the tabulator yes oh that's on the the device itself so the serial let's do the serial number one first let's cross that out right serial number yeah let's do that make sure we get that tabular serial number yep tabulator matches the yep you read it out loud let me see that's one seven zero zero seven nine three two zero five right and then and there's a seal on the memory device yes one seven one three eight seven and I think Katerina I might have been a old one the number it is one seven one three eight seven one seven one three eight seven okay I'll make that correction there yep and of that mm-hmm serial number you'll read that yep w one seven zero zero seven one eight three zero four right and it's true Jail number, or the memory, the 171394. Okay, great. All right. Thank you.

17. 20:00

    so the serial let's do the serial number one first let's cross that out right serial number yeah let's do that make sure we get that tabular serial number yep tabulator matches the yep you read it out loud let me see that's one seven zero zero seven nine three two zero five right and then and there's a seal on the memory device yes one seven one three eight seven and I think Katerina I might have been a old one the number it is one seven one three eight seven one seven one three eight seven okay I'll make that correction there yep and of that mm-hmm serial number you'll read that yep w one seven zero zero seven one eight three zero four right and it's true Jail number, or the memory, the 171394. Okay, great. All right. Thank you. Yep, thank you. Any questions, Mr. Chair? Yes, please. Any questions about the process? A little different this time than the last one with our new VAT test, machine test process, which of course we test them all before this for every precinct, but this is the new requirement that they be also retested during public accuracy. Thank you, sir. And let's do a last item, which we're doing now, which is to consider approval, the voting assist terminal testing, the security certification form, as corrected, and the tabular programming testing, the security certification form, as corrected. And I'd look for a motion to approve. So move. Support. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

18. 21:15

    Thank you. Yep, thank you. Any questions, Mr. Chair? Yes, please. Any questions about the process? A little different this time than the last one with our new VAT test, machine test process, which of course we test them all before this for every precinct, but this is the new requirement that they be also retested during public accuracy. Thank you, sir. And let's do a last item, which we're doing now, which is to consider approval, the voting assist terminal testing, the security certification form, as corrected, and the tabular programming testing, the security certification form, as corrected. And I'd look for a motion to approve. So move. Support. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Great. Okay. Thanks. We look for a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. So moved. All those in favor? Of support. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Or adjourned.