  Recent work of Altu\u{g} continues the preliminary analysis of Langlands'
Beyond Endoscopy proposal for $GL(2)$ by removing the contribution of the
trivial representation to the trace formula using a Poisson summation formula.
We show that Altu\u{g}'s method of smoothing real elliptic orbital integrals by
an approximate functional equation extends to $GL(n)$. We also discuss the case
of an arbitrary reductive group, and remaining obstructions for applying
Poisson summation.
