Today, Nov. 5, at 6 a.m., while most of you Free Press readers are probably just stirring, I and my beloved are dragging our mostly uncaffeinated heads to an election precinct near our Lansing-area home. From years past, we know the drill. There we will join other local folks — specifically, like us, U.S. citizens, and all trained in election day rules and protocols (as law requires) — assembled to setup voting booths, attach sample ballots and voting maps to the walls, and establish the 100-foot limit from the voting area where political campaigning cannot take place.
Oh, before we do any of that, we will also swear an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, the Michigan Constitution and to faithfully discharge our duties as inspectors, according according to Section 168.680 of the Michigan Compiled Laws . This is required; we cannot work as inspectors unless we do so swear.
The busywork done, we get into the fun of setting up the all-important tabulator, and the very important electronic poll book. There are a number of stages to this, all required, again, by law and rule, to ensure the tabulator especially has not been previously tampered with. We are bound to ensure it will not be tampered with during the course of Election Day.