Oakland County, Michigan, Tuesday, December 18, 2007 -- Virtually every city and township in Oakland County is expected to participate in a mock election Thursday designed to test the county's Election Reporting System, said Ruth Johnson, the Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds.

The test will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 20. Members of the media are invited to watch the simulation in the Clerk's Election Room to see how results are tallied electronically by the county's new system.

The system transmits vote totals from each community to a central database in Oakland County via secure telephone lines. That data is then tabulated and will be available on Election Night on our web site, www.oakgov.com. "Our goal is to update results at least every 15 minutes," Johnson said.

The January 15 Presidential Primary Election will be the first countywide election handled by the system. It is also the first time the county will use its own ballot programming - something previously supplied by a vendor - for a countywide election. The change will save the county $180,000 annually.

"We are doing all we can to try to ensure that we get vote tallies out as efficiently and quickly as possible for the Primary Election," Johnson said. "It's imperative that every voice, every vote is counted."

A second mock election will be held during a Dec. 27 make-up date for communities who do not participate on Thursday.