Michigan election officials plan and prepare for repeat of 2020 disruptions in 2024

Bomb threats at polling locations. An unknown substance found in an envelope carrying an absentee ballot. Artificial Intelligence impersonating a local clerk in a voice message. These are the scenarios up for discussion between Michigan election officials and law enforcement officers at trainings across the state this month to prepare for the upcoming presidential election.

Over boxed Panera Bread lunches in a conference room at Cadillac Place in Detroit last Wednesday, representatives from southeastern Michigan communities shared their ideas of how they respond to a hypothetical election disruption. It was the first of several such "table top exercises" hosted by the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson — the state's chief elections officer — hopes local election administrators and law enforcement will attend.

Trainings in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Traverse City and Marquette aim to help communities start their process to plan for possible contingencies early.

"There were things that happened in 2020 that I think caught all of us by surprise," said former Rochester Hills City Clerk Tina Barton who helps lead the trainings for the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. "Every election cycle has something in it that loves to throw a tiny bit of chaos."

The more formal security planning process heading into 2024 compared to past elections reflects new threats to elections, Benson said. By looking back at the election disruptions in 2020, Benson sees a roadmap for being better prepared this time around for any attempts by bad actors to interfere in the process.

The situations discussed are not far-fetched, said Barton. "So these aren't things where we're like, 'what if spaceships came down?'" she said. She noted suspicious envelopes sent to election offices in multiple states. Some contained fentanyl. During the 2022 August primary in Michigan, a bomb scare temporarily closed a polling location in Linden to allow Michigan State Police's bomb squad to investigate a suspicious backpack found by an election worker.

Benson told those attending the Detroit table top exercise that one of the goals of the program was to take away some of the fear associated with the scenarios discussed by developing a plan in advance.

In Michigan, many clerks and election officers bring to the 2024 cycle their own lessons from their work in 2020. While some election officials across the country left their posts in response to threats they faced in the wake of the 2020 election, Benson said Michigan stands out as a battleground state that has seen relatively little turnover.

"And so we go into 2024 with the benefit of experiencing ... levers being pulled and tactics being deployed in Michigan and seeing things happen in other states and knowing that at the very least we have to be prepared for a repeat of all of those and then some," she said.

Artificial intelligence tops the list of potential concerns heading into 2024 as well as how foreign adversaries might try to interfere in the election, she added.

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Elections in Michigan don't just take place on a single day. Voting begins 45 days prior to Election Day when military and overseas voters start receiving ballots. Then a 40-day absentee voting period and up to 29 days of early voting all provide opportunities to weigh in on races up and down the ballot before in-person voting at the polls. Once polling locations close at 8 p.m. on Election Day, the post-election process includes reviews and certifications that in 2020 saw former President Donald Trump and his allies attempt to overturn his loss in Michigan in 2020.

Benson hopes election officials will be prepared to handle whatever comes their way during that entire election cycle. Of course, they can't anticipate everything, Benson said. "We still have nightmares every night and that's just the reality of the work," she said.

Contact Clara Hendrickson atchendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X, previously called Twitter,@clarajanehen.

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