Early voting sign in Meridian Township | Susan J. Demas
Although Tuesday is officially Election Day, about 3.2 million Michiganders, or approximately 44% of all registered voters in the state, have cast a ballot as of Sunday.
That’s according to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who provided the numbers during a media update Monday from Detroit, calling the state’s first ever early voting period during a presidential election “extremely successful.”
Approved by voters in 2022, the constitutional amendment that created at least nine days of early voting went into effect earlier this year.
Benson said that between the opening of statewide early voting Saturday, Oct. 26, and the final day on Sunday, Nov. 3, over 1.2 million voters came out and cast a ballot at an early voting center.
“Voters’ enthusiasm for early voting was really above and beyond anything we expected throughout the week,” said Benson. “And we consistently saw each day over 100,000 or more folks show up to vote. The highest early voting turnout day was yesterday, Sunday the 3rd, with more than 189,000 voters showing up and casting their ballot.”
Meanwhile, about 1.98 million absentee ballots have been received as of Sunday.
Benson said between in-person early voting and absentee voting, women cast 55% of the ballots submitted so far. Additionally, she said they were seeing good engagement this cycle by younger voters.
Two days before election day in 2020, Benson said approximately 12% of people who had voted by mail were between 18 and 30 years of age. As of polls closing last night, she said 12.5% of the total votes cast thus far came from 18 to 30 year olds, while more than 17% of those who took advantage of in-person early voting were between the ages of 18 and 30. Still, older Michiganders represent more than half the votes cast already with 51.4% of ballots received to this point coming from voters over the age of 60.
Benson said she was pleased to announce that all the trends they are seeing indicate that Michigan is on pace to see another high turnout election with voters across the state enthusiastic and engaged.
“One of the things I saw more than anything else was that a lot of voters showed up with their kids, inviting them to witness history, be a part of history, in the hopes of inspiring and preparing our youngest Michiganders and these future voters to inherit our democracy. But most importantly, all across the state from Houghton to Hillsdale to Grand Rapids to Flint and here in Detroit, I was really happy to know voters throughout our state experienced a smooth and successful and secure process throughout the early voting time period,” said Benson.
Several counties were leading the way in voter turnout, with Washtenaw County out in front with 54%, ten points above the state average, followed by Oakland County at 49.8%, and Kent County at 47.8%.
A further breakdown showed Ann Arbor had the highest turnout percentage so far of any municipality or township at 60% of active registered voters. East Lansing was next at 55%, and Livonia and Sterling Heights following at 47% and 45% respectively.
Meanwhile, the state’s largest city, Detroit, had 32% turnout so far, while Grand Rapids was at 39%.
Benson also said in her travels to various early voting sites, she couldn’t help but notice the popularity of this year’s student-designed “I voted” stickers.
“The hugest hit was the sticker that comedian John Oliver called the ‘greatest sticker ever designed’, the famous Michigan voting werewolf sticker,” said Benson. “Voters are loving them, and we also want folks to know if you are one of those who did not get this werewolf sticker with your mail ballot or at your early voting center, I have good news. As of today, we have delivered these ‘I voted’ stickers to all of our Secretary of State branch offices all across Michigan. So they’re now available for any voter or future voter or just sticker enthusiast to come and pick up at one of our branch offices.”
Benson also thanked Michigan’s clerks and election workers who she said had done an exceptional job managing the early voting sites, setting up counting boards, pre-processing mail in ballots, and making sure the overall voting process ran smoothly and securely.
“All of us owe a huge debt of gratitude to these dedicated professionals, and I’m extremely thankful for their tireless work for the people of Michigan,” she said.
However, Benson said that work was not over and she had confidence election officials would work hard to provide accurate results as soon as possible, a task she said was helped considerably through early voting and the ability to begin processing absentee ballots prior to Election Day.
“In 2020, our clerks were not able to begin even pre-processing those [absentee] ballots until 7 a.m. on election day itself. And they did to great success,” she said, noting that despite that year having the highest election turnout in state history, unofficial results were still available within 24 hours of the polls closing.
“So this year, it’s a little bit different and a lot more efficient,” Benson said. “… As of Monday, October 28th, clerks had the ability to begin preprocessing and feeding those ballots into the machines as well. So that puts us in an extremely good position to handle any late coming ballots that are returned on Tuesday or today to which will be processed and tabulated just as they would if they were returned at any other time.”
Benson said accordingly they will have a much smaller number of absentee ballots to process on Election Day, while also having a higher capacity to process and tabulate the ballots on Tuesday.
“I’m very optimistic and hopeful that we’ll have those unofficial results in sooner than we did in 2020,” she said.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.