Clerks throughout the state of Michigan are determining how to deal with broad requests from a secretive group asking for copies of voted ballots and other material from the November 2016 election.

The requests submitted under the Freedom of Information Act are signed with only a first name, "Emily," and are coming from the "United Impact Group," although it's unclear what the group is or why it wants copies of seemingly every ballot cast in Michigan during the last general election.

The mysterious requests have been sent to "many, many clerks around the state, if not all of the clerks" this month, state elections director Sally Williams said Friday.

Williams said the general legal consensus is that voted ballots are open record, and that the ballots themselves are fully anonymous. But some of the requests are for poll books, provisional ballots and other material that could need further legal review, and Williams said the state and other groups are helping locals navigate the requests as they also prepare for the 2018 general election.

"It's unnerved a lot of the clerks, rightfully so," Williams said. "Right now we're just in the request stage...I greatly suggest that if they get a deposit, they make sure that the check clears and then they can move towards fulfilling that request.

"Depending on how all that goes, their main focus also has to be on administering the election," she continued.

Per federal law, municipalities have to keep their ballots for at least 22 months after an election. Williams said she's advising Michigan clerks to hang onto those ballots for a while longer while the requests are ongoing.

Lisa Borgacz is the City Clerk for Mt. Clemens in Macomb County. She said she got an initial FOIA request from "Emily" on June 4 asking for copies of voted ballots and other information from the November 2016 election from one precinct. Later, on Aug. 20, "Emily" sent a second request seeking the same information from all the precincts.

In total it's about 7,000 ballots the city will have to produce. It's not a lot in the grand scheme of Michigan elections, but it's enough to make the two-person office grind to a halt.

"...it's pretty labor intensive. It will really shut down the operation of this office to fulfill that timely," Borgacz said.

She received a check for the first FOIA request. It looks like a check from a business, she said, this "United Impact Group." But the address was blacked out.

One of the materials requested is the front of absentee voter envelopes, which include a voter's signature. Borgacz is not comfortable fulfilling the requests, partially because she doesn't know who she's giving it to.

"They would have a signature and an address of a person. I do think there's a danger in that. You don't know who it's going to and what they're using it for," she said.

Allegan County Clerk Bob Genetski said his office got a request on May 25. The requestor, though, didn't seem to know much about how ballots are stored in Michigan, because she asked for a lot of things local clerks, and not county clerks, would have.

The request was extensive, but the Allegan County Clerk only had a tiny piece of it on hand: the Lee Township poll book.

Genetski said he sent a response and the group remitted payment of $26.26. But the check had an address and phone number that were blocked out. After consulting with the county treasurer the county decided not to accept it, and has written back to "Emily" requesting another form of payment.

"Our response letter to Emily indicates that we're going to need a different form of payment, one that has at least a return address on the check and a phone number, and a semi-legible signature at least," Genetski said.

He said most other clerks he's heard from are consulting with their legal counsel before fulfilling the request. One of the big mysteries is the requestor and their motivations.

"I just think you've got a person who doesn't even put his or her last name with an envelope that has a return address to Astoria, New York and a check to an account where the address is blacked out, that just seems incredibly odd," Genetski said.

Genetski said the ballots in Allegan County have already been counted twice, once by the tabulator at the polling place and once in a recount. The county got through its entire recount and confirmed results before the courts put a stop to the process.

Kentwood Clerk Dan Kasunic, the 2018-19 President of the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks, said that like many other clerks throughout the state, he's currently preparing cost estimates and determining what additional resources will be necessary should the requests go through.

Fulfilling the entirety of the requests would be a monumental task, both in monetary costs and time, Kasunic said - additional staffing hours "would absolutely be required," and he said his office would need to lease a copier solely for handling the FOIA request.

He said he would require "Emily" to deposit 50 percent of the cost prior to beginning the work, but added his office would be split between the two full-time tasks of fulfilling the request and preparing for the 2018 general election if it goes through.

"I believe that this is kind of an unintended consequence of having transparency - if Emily does pay the 50 percent to me or to everyone else, we're coming awfully close to the November election," he said. "Certainly, it becomes an enormous burden."

MLive reporter Emily Lawler contributed to this report.