Owosso to canvass early votes in City Hall basement Nov. 3

If you want to watch part of how Owosso's votes get checked, the city has given you a time and a room. The City of Owosso posted notice Wednesday that it will conduct a precinct canvass of early votes in the basement of City Hall, 301 W. Main Street, on Tuesday, Nov. 3, after the polls close at 8 p.m.

"The public is welcome to attend," the notice says.

The city cites MCL 168.720j, the section of Michigan election law that governs the handling of early votes. A canvass is the formal check of ballots and counts at the precinct level — the step that reconciles what the machines reported with the ballots and the poll books before results go to the county.

The notice does not say how long the canvass is expected to take, how many early votes were cast in Owosso, or who will conduct it. It also does not list a seat count for members of the public who show up.

This is the third election-process notice the city has posted for the Nov. 3 gubernatorial election. The Current reported Sept. 30 that Owosso set its public accuracy test of the vote counters for 5:30 p.m. Oct. 13 in the City Hall conference room. On Oct. 8 we reported that the city set two absent voter counting boards at City Hall from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 2 — a day before the election — with that counting carrying into Election Day.

All three steps are open to the public, which is the point of posting them. Michigan requires public notice of accuracy testing and of counting board work so that anyone who wants to see the process can.

What happens next: Polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3. The early-vote canvass begins in the City Hall basement after that. The desk has asked for the number of early votes cast in Owosso and the expected length of the canvass; the notice does not include either.