The Michigan Board of State Canvassers meeting to certify the results of the Nov. 5, 2024 election. Nov. 22, 2024. Screenshot
President-elect Donald Trump won Michigan by about 80,000 votes in November as the state saw the greatest voter turnout in state history at more than 5.7 million ballots cast, according to state election results certified unanimously Friday by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers.
All of Michigan’s 83 counties certified the results of their area and with the Board of State Canvassers’ approval, those results will be sent to the appropriate parties to be placed on record for the state.
The November election was a “grueling” process and one that demanded all-night efforts from election workers, Jonathan Brater, director of the Michigan Bureau of Elections said during the canvassers meeting, noting several changes in Michigan law made in recent years that aimed to give Michiganders more avenues to vote.
“We had more than 5.7 million Michiganders cast ballots and that broke the previous record of around 5.6 million 4 years ago. Breaking that record is particularly notable because nationwide turnout dropped compared to 2024, while in Michigan, it went up,” Brater said. “Voters clearly took advantage of their new options in exercising the right to vote and election officials worked with diligence and integrity to make sure they had those options.”
Back in 2018, Michiganders voted for the right that now many states have, to vote absentee through a mail-in ballot without having to provide an excuse for why they’ll be voting absentee. In 2022, Michiganders upped the ante by approving several measures amending the state’s election law, most notably establishing nine days of early voting where voters could cast their ballots before election day. Some municipalities provide even more days of early voting as the voter-approved changes mandated nine days, but allow for up to 29 days.
Some in Michigan decried the new voting measures, citing concerns for security. Brater added that there were critics that compounded doubts about early voting by saying that people would not even utilize additional days to vote.
They were wrong. Over nine days of early voting statewide, and more days in some jurisdictions, 1.2 million Michiganders cast ballots before Election Day, Brater said.
“It was popular throughout the state and over every day of early voting, to see so many voters embrace this new option and to see election officials administer it so effectively while offering it for the first time in a major election, was both inspiring and a testament to the commitment and excellence of our election workers,” he said.
And while tasked with an election that was accurately slated to drive large voter turnout in Michigan and represent steep political divisions throughout the state, Brater said election workers put their heads down and delivered a well-run election season.
Election officials installed secure absent voter ballot drop boxes throughout the state and implemented a new permanent absent voter ballot list, allowing voters to sign up for the list and be mailed a ballot for all future elections so long as they are eligible voters in the state, Brater said.
Pre-processing for returned absentee ballots presented a helpful change for election workers, under new laws, Brater said. Officials were able to receive filled out absentee ballots, verify signatures and scan ballots through tabulators, to be counted on Election Day. More populated areas got eight days for pre-processing, while smaller communities got one day.
“Clerks predicted that this would improve the absent voter ballot counting process, and they were proven right. With an available week to process absentee ballots before Election Day, things went much more smoothly. Results were available earlier,” Brater said. “We had over 2.2 million voters cast ballots absentee, if you add that to the 1.2 million early voters we had, we had more than 3.4 million voters casting their ballots before Election Day.”
Even the smoothest election has a few hiccups, which those determined to cast seeds of doubt on the integrity of the election will cling to, Brater said. Election officials frequently are subject to unfair criticism, abuse and threats for doing their duty in the election, Brater noted, and they are only human.
The City of Battle Creek was a high-profile example of human errors in unofficial results casting doubt in the election as there was a very close race for Michigan’s 44th state House seat. Initially, unofficial results reflected that incumbent state Rep. Jim Haadsma (D-Battle Creek) lost reelection to Republican challenger Steve Frisbie by more than 1,300 votes, but human error in reflecting the votes of nearly 3,000 absentee ballots narrowed Haadsma’s loss to 61 votes.
State law allows for a recount in a state House race if the margin of victory is less than 200 votes, although Haadsma has yet to officially request one.
The issues weren’t with the ballots being counted inaccurately or the voting equipment counting incorrectly, it was simply a human error with sharing unofficial results, which is done to “provide a quick snapshot of the unofficial results to the public, to candidates and to the media as quickly as possible,” Brater said.
“We also identified and corrected some errors in the compiling and the submission of the results that were reported from Allegan Calhoun and Mackinac counties, and those corrections have been imported prior to state certification,” Brater said. “Ultimately, whether everything goes perfectly or whether there are initial mistakes that need to be corrected, these are all examples of our system working…and ultimately, the system worked in 2024, just as it did in 2022 and 2020 and in other recent elections.”