Voting in the 2022 Michigan general election will wrap up Tuesday night, but the results and official winners could come hours -- or even days -- after polls close.
Polls in Southeast Michigan close at 8 p.m., while a small slice of the Western Upper Peninsula is in Central Time, so the entire state won’t be done voting until 9 p.m. here in Detroit. That means we’re not likely to see results until closer to 9 p.m., or shortly after.
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How to find Michigan election results
Once polls close in Southeast Michigan, clerks will begin reporting both in-person and mail-in votes from across the state.
You can find a full list of races we’re covering right here, or use the drop-down search menu below to find the race you’re looking for:
Why do final results take so long?
Two big reasons for this. The biggest one, for this election, is the huge influx of mail ballots. In Michigan, more than 1.7 million voted by mail.
And by law, those ballots can be processed two days before the election, but they can’t be fully counted until election day itself -- this takes time, and with the massive amount of mail ballots, it’ll take even more time this year.
Related: Election officials detail what happens to your ballots after casting your vote in Michigan
Secondly, Michigan’s election reporting system is disconnected -- meaning, there isn’t a central hub in the state where results are being reported. It’s all at the local level. But in other states, like Texas for example, results are reported to one state agency, and then distributed from there, to news outlets and residents. This makes reporting results more difficult in Michigan.
It will take days to know the full results in some cities and states. There is no law that states results need to be reported on the same day as the election. Delays happen in every election, and you should expect results to fluctuate.
More: Inside look: How WDIV collects, reports election results, what to expect
This doesn’t mean anything fishy is going on, it’s just votes being counted. You should expect votes to fluctuate as results are reported in batches by local clerks.
When should you expect winners?
Some races will be “called” by media outlets pretty early on -- but some closer races in Michigan and in other states could linger into Wednesday and even Thursday, depending on how quickly the mail ballots can be fully counted.
Expect to be following closer races at least into Wednesday.
