This is wild ... a Democratic election official named Barb Byrum -- a clerk for Ingham County -- filed a police report ratting out a resident in the city of Mason who recently pulled this cringe-worthy stunt, which obviously isn't meant to be taken literally or seriously.

Doesn't matter though, because Byrum contends that what this person did -- telling folks (whether in jest or not) to drop off their ballots in her toilet via signage -- is actually illegal, and amounts to election tampering. Byrum says it's against the law to take illegal possession of an absentee ballot, and feels like this display could mislead people about the process.

So, in other words ... she's worried some doofus might actually come by and drop their ballots in the toilet, thinking this is a legit way of it being counted. Sounds crazy, but hey ... Barb here is just looking out for the newbies who might be voting for the first time.

If this sounds extreme and over the top ... let it be a sign of where we are in this country, with President Trump sewing doubt over the election process, especially as it pertains to mail-in voting. It would seem some people are trying to make a tongue-in-cheek gag out of it, but clearly the folks running the election process there on the ground don't find it funny.