Michigan elections FAQ: Do early, absentee ballots count if a voter dies?

• Michigan has traditionally rejected absentee ballots cast by voters who then die before Election Day
• But under new early tabulation and early in-person voting laws, some of those ballots will be counted in Michigan this year
• Bridge is answering questions from readers throughout the election season as part of our Michigan elections FAQ series

As the Nov. 5 general election approaches and political debates heat up, Bridge Michigan is inviting readers to ask questions as part of our Elections FAQ series, which includes a weekly live video show. Submit your question here. 

Amy from Goodrich asked: If a person dies after returning his absentee ballot, the clerk will find his ballot and not process it. If a person early votes (in person) and dies before election day, his vote counts, correct?

Bottom line: That is generally correct, although a new early tabulation option for local clerks means some absentee voters who die before Election Day could also have their previously cast ballots this year.

Michigan law requires election clerks to make their "best effort" to remove and reject absentee ballots cast by voters who subsequently die before Election Day. That happened 3,469 times in the 2020 presidential election. 

Between 8,000 and 9,000 Michigan residents die in a typical month, but not all of them are voting age or are registered to participate in elections. 

Early in-person voting

Under a ballot proposal approved by voters in 2022, Michiganders can now vote early and in-person for at least nine days before Election Day. 

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If you vote in-person ahead of the Nov. 5 general election, you’ll feed your ballot into a tabulator machine. Once that happens, “it is not possible to then retrieve that ballot,” said Secretary of State spokesperson Angela Benander.

That means your ballot will count even if you die before Election Day. 

Once you feed your ballot into the tabulator, it is essentially “anonymized” to protect the secrecy of how a person voted, Benander said. 

Early tabulation for absentee ballots

The same principle holds true for absentee ballots: Once they are fed into a tabulator, the state says they are considered cast and will be counted even for voters who die before Election Day. 

Michigan lawmakers last year approved new rules giving local clerks more time to process absentee ballots ahead of Election Day, a move designed to speed up the count.

Cities or townships with more than 5,000 residents have the option to begin processing — and tabulating — absentee ballots up to eight days before the election. Smaller jurisdictions get a single day.

If an absentee ballot is tabulated during that early processing window, it will count even if the voter later dies before Election Day. 

As of early October, more than 300 of the state's 1,521 jurisdictions had told the state they plan to tabulate absentee ballots ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

Do other states do it differently?

States vary on whether they count early ballots that are cast by voters who end up dying before Election Day. 

Ten states explicitly permit counting absentee ballots that were cast before a voter dies, but nine other states strictly prohibit it, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. 

How to vote early, either in-person or absentee

Absentee ballots are now available in Michigan, where clerks began sending them on Sept. 26. You can apply for an absentee ballot online or at your local clerk’s office, which you can look up here. 

Early in-person voting must begin statewide on Oct. 26, but communities can choose to begin earlier. Detroit, for example, plans to begin offering early in-person voting on Oct. 19. 

To find your early voting location, click here. To see what’s on your ballot, as well as whether you’re registered to vote in your jurisdiction, click here.