With Tuesday's general election expected to draw record turnout nationwide, officials said voter participation in Ann Arbor is expected to be especially high at student precincts.

About 106,000 residents are registered to vote in Tuesday’s election, an increase of more than 12 percent and 13,000 people from 2004. Since the start of the fall semester, 12,000 people were added to the city's voter rolls.

Keeping those numbers in mind, Beaudry’s office is taking steps to make Election Day run smoothly as possible for voters and poll workers. She said the city has purchased enough new voting booths to boost the number at each precinct by 50 percent.

At a meeting with the chairs of Ann Arbor’s 48 precincts, Beaudry and the city's elections inspectors trainer, Howard Scheps, explained different scenarios workers could expect on Election Day, focusing much of their discussion on issues specific to students.

Beaudry told the precinct captains that the University-issued MCard was an acceptable form of ID and that voters didn’t need to provide a driver's license or prove their residency.

Student-heavy precincts, she said, will likely see the most challenges from poll monitors representing the major political parties. Unlike most other polling locations, which are headed by one chairperson, precincts that are largely comprised of students will have two chairs, one of whom will be a lawyer. The goal, Scheps said, is to make the challenge procedure and the voting process move more quickly.

In addition to the Republican and Democratic parties, the independent Michigan Election Coalition will also be sending poll monitors to Ann Arbor precincts. The group's aim, according to its site, is to provide support to "underrepresented and socially responsible communities."

Poll monitors, who stand by to make sure election law is being followed, will be able to challenge potential voters at their precincts. A monitor can challenge a voter's eligibility based on their age, residency and citizenship.

If a monitor issues a challenge, they have to state the grounds for the challenge and then the voter will be asked to sign an affidavit swearing his or her eligibility. The ballot is then marked as challenged and tabulated.

"If there's a recount or some kind of federal orders to re-run the results of that election, we could pull that ballot if it was determined that person shouldn't have voted," Beaudry said.

A challenge cannot be based solely on appearance, Beaudry said. For instance, a monitor cannot issue a challenge simply because he or she thinks a voter doesn't look at least 18 years old.

"It should not be, 'I'm just looking at people and deciding this who I want to challenge," Beaudry told the poll workers.

But Scheps said problems with poll monitors weren't limited to challenges. Some monitors, he said, considered themselves advocates for voters and might overstep their bounds.

LSA freshman Paulina Seromik, who will serve as a chairperson at East Quad, has served as an inspector or precinct chair for five elections. She only dealt with a poll challenger in 2004, when she worked at the Michigan Union.

Seromik said the poll monitor, a Democrat, would interject while she was talking to voters, making it difficult for her to do her job. But she said Tuesday's meeting provided her with a better understanding of the laws surrounding poll monitors.

Ann Arbor resident Scott Munzel, who will serve as a precinct chairperson at Bursley Hall this year, said he dealt with a number of challenges at the Mary Street polling location, next to the Intramural Sports Building, which he guessed served about of 90 percent student voters.

Munzel, a lawyer, said he was assigned to serve as a co-chair at Bursley Hall because of his legal background.

"The thought is that attorneys may be more comfortable in confrontational situations," Munzel said.