Township changes for elections under review

By Dana Casadei

The Bloomfield Township Clerk’s Office have been looking into ways to improve elections within the township and presented its findings to the board of trustees at their Monday, June 9, meeting.

The two updates to the current election process that were proposed to the board include consolidating the township’s current precincts from 18 to 12, and partnering with Oakland County for early absentee ballot processing. Both of these are in alignment with state law.

“Although 2025 isn’t an election year, we always have elections on our minds,” said Catarina Yankey, election specialist. “We also didn’t want to jump into something this big.”

The clerk’s team collected data on voter turnout from the 2022 governor election and 2024 presidential election, and found that there was a 35 percent decrease in in-person voter turnout across all 18 precincts on Election Day.

“We would’ve expected an increase given that 2024 was a presidential election,” Yankey said. “With this we saw that our voters really liked voting early.”

In that same presidential election almost 19 percent of total voter turnout was from early voters, a massive increase from the August primary, which only had 4.48 percent for early voters.

For residents, a consolidation of precincts would allow for faster results at the end of the night, and allow for the most experienced staff to be less spread out across 18 precincts as they currently are, Yankey said.

This type of consolidation would come with a variety of benefits for Bloomfield Township staff and residents, including a 25 percent decrease in election staffing costs and enhanced security since there would be fewer locations to watch over. With fewer precincts to manage calls from and help troubleshoot the clerk’s office would be able to provide better customer service on Election Day too, she said.

The 12 precincts are currently being proposed would be a mix of already set precincts and combining some others, with none having more than a projected 4,820 voters per precinct, therefore, staying within the law’s limit of 4,999 active voters per precinct. The proposal includes three backup polling locations as well.

“I think it makes a lot of sense,” said trustee Chris Kolinski. “I also really appreciate the fact that you all didn’t want to make this change until after you got to see one election cycle, and got to see the numbers. Don’t make changes just to make changes, make purposeful, meaningful changes. This was great.”

During the meeting Yankey also discussed why Bloomfield Township should consider participating in Oakland County’s Absent Voter Counting Board (AVCB). This board already consists of 18 jurisdictions which participate, including Birmingham, Farmington, Lathrup Village, Royal Oak Township, Southfield Township and West Bloomfield Township.

“We really felt like this would be a great opportunity for ourselves and our residents,” Yankey said.

Not only would Oakland County be able to take on Bloomfield Township’s volume of absentee ballots, but it would also lead to faster results come Election Day and a massive increase in labor efficiency, according to Yankey.

For those jurisdictions who participate with the county’s program, absentee ballots are transferred by police escort over two transfers. The first happens on the Friday before the election, and the second at 4 p.m. the Monday before, which is when the largest majority of absentee ballots are sent in.

Since those absentee ballots are already picked up prior to Election Day, the count begins on Saturday, and they are completely done come Election Day. Results from those ballots can be posted after polls close, some as early as 8 p.m.

With those types of results, residents would know the outcome far earlier than they usually do, with the township not getting results in until 11 p.m. or later on Election Night, Yankey said.

It is predicted that partnering with Oakland County for pre-processing absentee ballots would provide a cost savings of 15 percent to Bloomfield Township.

With both of these changes the clerk’s office sought feedback from election workers, the election commission, and conducted operational benchmarking with Oakland County, all who highlighted the numerous benefits of consolidating precincts and collaborating with Oakland County.

“I know when it was presented to the election commission we were very impressed with the recommendations, certainly the efficiency, the cost savings… this enhances the entire voting experience,” said trustee Neal Barnett. “I’m very much in favor of your recommendations and I think it will make the experience better and certainly, more secure for our residents.”

While everyone on the board was in favor of the two propositions presented at the Monday night meeting, this presentation was not one that asked anything of the board other than to have an open discussion about what is being proposed.

The clerk’s office will come back to ask for approval from the board of trustees for polling locations and the partnering with Oakland County for early absentee ballot processing. The new precincts will also be presented to the election commission again.