More than 1.2 million Michigan voters have cast a ballot so far
- Over 1.2 million Michigan voters have already cast ballots through absentee or early voting ahead of the Nov. 5 election
- Republican-leaning counties are showing increased acceptance of absentee voting, narrowing the gap with Democratic-leaning counties
- As of Wednesday, Michigan has processed 1,242,248 absentee ballots and 7,054 early in-person votes. In 2020, 5.5 million voted, a record
With less than two weeks before the Nov. 5 election, well over 1.2 million Michigan voters have already submitted an absentee ballot or voted in person, according to the Michigan Secretary of State.
The latest update, which compares all voting through Tuesday to the same point in October 2020, also shows a growing willingness in Republican-leaning counties to embrace absentee voting.
Although most Republican counties still lag Democratic-leaning counties, the gap has narrowed substantially.
In 2020, when Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office sent an absentee ballot application to every voter because of the COVID-19 pandemic, 24.4% of active voters in counties President Joe Biden ultimately won had cast an absentee ballot two weeks before the election.
In the counties former President Donald Trump won, 20.8% of registered voters had cast a mail-in ballot. At the time, Trump routinely criticized mail-in ballots as unsafe.
This year the Republican party has embraced mail-in and early voting and the partisan gap has shrunk: 17.2% of voters in Democratic counties have cast ballots so far, compared to 15.6% in Republican-leaning counties.
And those though have so far asked for an absentee ballot.
Also, 35% of voters in Democratic counties have so far asked for an absentee ballot, compared to 30% in Republican ones. In 2020, the gap was larger: 47% in Democratic counties and 39% in Republican ones.
Through Wednesday, 1,242.248 have voted absentee and another 7,054 have cast an in-person ballot through early voting. The state has a voter dashboard that is updated every weekday.
In 2020, over 5.5 million voters cast ballots, the most ever in Michigan.
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