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    1.2 million voted early and in person in Michigan before Election Day
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    1.2 million voted early and in person in Michigan before Election Day

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    6 minutes, 47 seconds Read

    Lansing — About 1.2 million people voted at in-person early voting sites across Michigan in the first presidential election in which the state constitution provided voting.

    The number of voters in Michigan — updated by the Secretary of State's Office early Monday morning after early in-person voting concluded — represents more than a fifth of all voters who cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election. Adding in the 1.98 million mail-in ballots received Sunday evening, the total number of early voters is about 3.2 million, or nearly 44% of active registered voters in Michigan.

    The total number of early voters so far is at the level of 2020, when about 3.2 million people voted by mail during the pandemic. In total, almost 5.6 million people voted in this presidential election.

    According to state information, almost 348,000 postal ballots were still in circulation on Monday morning.

    A constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2022 requires all officials to offer in-person early voting for at least nine days before Election Day. This commitment resulted in most communities offering early voting from Saturday, October 26th through Sunday. Three communities have previously decided to open vote centers: Detroit, Canton Township and East Lansing.

    Detroit was one of the most early voters who voted in person. A total of 42,902 people voted at locations in the state's largest city. In addition, Detroit has received back about 89,000 of the approximately 109,000 mail-in ballots sent, according to the Department of State.

    “We knew they would be looking forward to it,” Detroit Secretary Janice Winfrey said Sunday of early, in-person voting. “This is our first year in Detroit. It started slow – you know, the presidential primaries were slow – but I’m very happy with the turnout.”

    The Detroit official said early voting lines ended after about an hour and 10 minutes, but voters were undeterred by the wait.

    “It’s impressive to see,” Winfrey said. “Everyone has high energy. Nobody is mad about waiting in line. And that’s the part I’m grateful for.”

    A new law also allowed cities like Detroit to begin counting mail-in ballots eight days before the election, rather than doing all the work in a single day, to avoid delays in announcing election results. The November 2020 election experienced reporting delays as the state experienced a surge in pandemic-related absentee voting.

    At the end of the day Monday, Detroit poll workers had accounted for about 87,000 of the 91,000 mail-in ballots returned so far, a completion rate of 95%, said Daniel Baxter, Detroit's chief operating officer for mail-in voting.

    There were another 22,000 mail-in ballots in circulation as of Monday's close, Baxter said. While many of these ballots may be sent by mail, voters have until 8 p.m. Tuesday to return their mail-in ballots to the city's elections department or drop them in one of Detroit's secure mailboxes.

    Voter turnout in rural areas

    Chris Ferguson was among more than 1.2 million who voted in person at an early voting site in Shiawassee County. The 59-year-old teacher from Owosso stopped at Owosso City Hall on Sunday to drop off a ballot while running errands.

    Ferguson said she probably could have made time to cast her vote on Tuesday, but decided to stop by on a day when she had less to do.

    “Everyone I know voted early,” Ferguson said. “They just thought it was so nice, pressure-free and practical. I’m on my way to the grocery store and then I’m going home and raking leaves.”

    Owosso City Clerk Amy Kirkland said Sunday afternoon that her office saw a significant increase in the number of early, in-person voters compared to the August primary.

    “Our traffic has really increased,” Kirkland said. “In August we had 100 voters in nine days. Last time I checked below we had over 1,300 participants for this election. Early voting seems to have really caught on.”

    The central Michigan city, which has about 12,200 registered voters, also issued about 2,500 mail-in ballots, Kirkland said. She expects use of early, in-person options will increase as more people learn about the choice.

    “I actually like early voting, and if it continues to grow the way I think it will, we may actually be able to reduce our costs on Election Day,” Kirkland said.

    In the northeastern Lower Peninsula, Alpena Municipal Secretary Michele Palevich said Sunday that about 2,000 people circulated through an early voting website that the municipality operates with the city of Alpena.

    She was pleased with the early in-person participation, which was much more stable than the decline the community saw in August. On one of the nine early voting days in August, a total of six people visited the early voting website, the clerk said.

    “This is the first election where I've really seen the benefit and where we've had good turnout,” Palevich said. “When we have a good turnout, it feels good. But when we have days with only six voters, it doesn’t feel as beneficial.”

    In southern Livingston County, Kristina Behm managed well to beat the line at her early voting center in Putnam Township on Saturday.

    “It's kind of nice to just get it done over the weekend and then you don't have to go before work or after work or whatever,” said Behm, 31. “It's great for people who have lives and are in where things happen.”

    Urban and suburban use

    At the Reo Road voting center in Lansing on Saturday afternoon, voters waited about 20 minutes to fill out their ballots — part of a steady stream of voters the city has seen during the nine days of early voting, City Clerk Chris Swope said. The capitol also had a second early voting site at the Foster Community Center.

    The city was one of several pilot communities to adopt early, in-person voting earlier than the rest of the state. Lansing offered a period of early voting ahead of the November 2023 election, the February presidential primary, a May city election and the August primary.

    In previous elections, where voter turnout is typically lower than presidential elections, early in-person voting was much lower, Swope said.

    “It was really great to see it catch on and see voters come forward,” Swope said. “And it’s really just the people who come all day.”

    In Kent County, each jurisdiction operated its own early voting centers, with Grand Rapids alone hosting four within the city, said Lisa Posthumus Lyons, Kent County county clerk. Across Kent County, about 96,265 early in-person votes were cast, she said.

    Lyons said she was relieved that the early, in-person voting centers were being used after underwhelming turnout in the presidential primaries in February and August. Turnout for the county's first day of early voting on Oct. 26 was twice as high as in February and August when the number of in-person votes were added together, she said.

    “I think early voting in Michigan is proven and safe,” Lyons said Sunday. “And the voters have proven that they are interested.”

    Kent County's absentee numbers are down compared to 2020, but it's still hard to say whether that's an effect of the pandemic or whether voters are switching from absentee voting to early, in-person voting, she said. she said.

    “Everything went smoothly, but we had lines,” Lyons said. “Since we didn’t know where the starting point would be, as this was our first election with high turnout and early voting, we didn’t know what to expect.”

    West Michigan wasn't the only region to see lines at early in-person polling stations.

    In DeWitt, 23-year-old Brayden Shaw walked into the city's early polling place at noon Sunday, only to walk out after seeing the line. Voters leaving the polling station said they waited in line for about an hour and 10 minutes.

    Shaw said he plans to return later in the day or early Tuesday to cast his vote. He said he might find a weekday to vote next time.

    “I think it's smart to reduce lines on Election Day,” Shaw said. “But I think everyone has the same mindset and tries to vote early because they think it will make the lines shorter. And then that just leads to a backup.”

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    Staff writer Julia Cardi contributed.

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