A significant change to how we all vote in Michigan begins Saturday morning. No longer is it a choice between voting absentee and voting on election day.
Saturday (Feb. 17) morning, Michigan begins nine days of early voting before election day.
Metro Detroit clerks have been preparing for this for months, and now you can cast your vote in person. However, votes will not be counted until election day.
Voters approved this in 2022, but it will be the first time we see it in action in Michigan.
The voting process will run for nine days.
The idea behind early voting is to ease long lines and snafus of in-person voting on election day, but unlike election day, you’re not going to see all the polling places you see on election day up and running.
Instead, each community will choose its early voting sites.
For example, in one township, there will be two; if voting early is something you are interested in, it is best to check out your local clerk’s page and see what they’ve designated as early voting locations.
“A voter comes in, gets their ballot, marks their ballot, and enters their ballot into the tabulator, and those ballots will be counted on election day,” said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
So now, all of us have three options for voting—absentee, early in-person voting, and voting on election day.
The difference is whether you go to your designated polling place on election day or whether you go to one of the dedicated early voting spots your community clerk has chosen. It starts on the 17th and will run through the 25th.
The primary election day is Feb. 27, which will continue as always.
The Michigan Secretary of State did a Zoom briefing Thursday to review details, but local clerks have been preparing for this for months.
The reality is we have been able to do early voting for years. Some people usually like to vote in person on election day to gauge what it feels like out there and to see how busy it is.
Still, this new path to cast your vote is an option for those who know ahead of time that their workday will be hectic.
We always had the option of going to our local clerk’s office ahead of time and asking for our ballot and voting.
All this does is expand that process and make it theoretically easier.
