Michigan elections FAQ: How long will it take to report results?

• A reader asks Bridge how and when absentee ballots will be counted this November
• New law will let clerks begin to process absentee ballots eight days before an election
• Early processing should provide quicker results on election night, said Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson

As election season unfolds and political debates heat up, Bridge Michigan is inviting readers to ask questions about our purple state as part of our Elections FAQ series, which includes a weekly live video show and written responses. 

Submit your question here. 

Geoff from Battle Creek asks: How and when will absentee ballots be processed? Will we have to wait to see final results this year, or will most of the absentee results be reported shortly after the polls close, like in Florida?

In Nov. 2020, the Associated Press called Florida’s election 35 minutes after midnight — it took another 17 hours to call Michigan.

Related:

• Michigan has new voting processes for 2024. What to know
• Michigan elections FAQ: Early voting starts Saturday for August primary
• Michigan elections FAQ: Does new recount law bar fraud investigations?

This year, under a new law, local election clerks are allowed to process absentee ballots up to eight days before Election Day — and feed them into a tabulator. That should lead to quicker results while maintaining election security, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said this week. 

Senate Bill 367, passed by the Legislature in June 2023 with bipartisan support, extended the state’s early ballot processing period from one to eight days.

According to the new law, cities or townships serving over 5,000 residents can establish absent voter counting boards and begin processing and tabulating absentee ballots eight days before an election.

“Processing” refers to opening envelopes and verifying voter signatures, while “tabulating” refers to feeding ballot results into voting machines. Tabulators count collected ballots, but no results can be reported until polls close at 8 p.m. on Election Day. 

The law required clerks to notify the state if they planned to process absentee ballots early. A total of 165 jurisdictions did so for the Aug. 6 primary. You can see the full list here.

Political parties and organized committees of interested citizens can each designate election challengers to an absent voter counting to observe processing.

Sterling Heights Clerk Melanie Ryska, who joined Benson at a press conference this week, said her voter counting board took 27 hours to count 47,000 absentee ballots in 2020. She expects the state’s new law to reduce the workload. 

“We should be able to get results out a bit faster than we did in 2020,” she said. “Still — it's not going to be at 8:30 (p.m.), as some people would like.”

Bridge Michigan is answering reader questions through our elections FAQ series. Ask your own question here.