Benson: Early Voting A Success, But Mail-In Ballots Still Dominate
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Lily Guiney - February 26, 2024
When Michigan's nine-day early voting period ended Sunday night, 78,000 voters had cast ballots in Michigan's presidential primary election, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a Monday press conference.
The first statewide early voting opportunity in Michigan's history was a success, Benson said. Of the total amount of in-person early voters, more than 20,000 visited the polls Saturday and Sunday.
"I expect in-person early voting to become more and more popular as more citizens learn about their options and become accustomed to Michigan having several election days, rather than just one election day," Benson said.
Canton Township Clerk Michael Siegrist, who joined Benson and advocates from Promote the Vote at the Detroit press conference, said the early voting process ran smoothly and gave voters more choices to ensure their ballot was cast.
"What an exciting time to be a clerk, and what a really cool time to be a voter in the state of Michigan," Siegrist said.
Promote the Vote officials, who have worked on various ballot initiatives to expand election law in the state, credited Michigan's electorate's approval of proposal 2022-2 for increased turnout this year.
"Michiganders went to the ballot box in 2022 to overwhelmingly declare that they want accessible elections and a secure, modernized voting system," said Micheal Davis, Jr., executive director of Promote the Vote. "The numbers don't lie. When we make voting more accessible, more people will vote."
Despite the turnout of early voters, mail-in absentee ballots appear to still be the most popular way for Michiganders to make their voices heard. Benson said that 927,000 mail-in ballots were received for the primary, nearly 12 times the number of in-person early votes. Overall, approximately 1 million votes have been cast before election day, which Benson said is a 13 percent increase from pre-election day turnout in 2020.
"It really is a reflection of voter enthusiasm, and also of Michigan's expanded voting options," Benson said. "Notably, in 2020, Michiganders could only cast their ballot early through the mail, or to a drop box through voting at home or returning it at their clerk's office."
In 2020, with a highly active Democratic primary and a somewhat active Republican primary, 2.27 million total votes were cast.
Because Michigan Democrats used a closed caucus system for many years, and Republicans used an open primary for many years, there's not a comparable year to this one, with an incumbent president essentially unopposed for reelection and the opposition party having all but already decided its nominee. In 2012, while Obama had no opposition, there was an all-out, expensive battle on the Republican side between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum in which almost 1 million voters cast ballots.
Early votes are tabulated, Benson said, but nobody will see the results until 9 p.m. Eastern Tuesday night. Polls close on election day at 8 p.m. local time, but due to the four Upper Peninsula counties in the Central Time Zone, counting won't begin until all 83 counties have stopped voting.
Benson said the goal is to have complete unofficial results available to the public by noon Wednesday but expects some to be counted sooner.
