Michigan voters have returned nearly 790,000 ballots with two weeks until Election Day

Michigan voter turnout in the midterm election has reached 10% with two weeks to go before Election Day on Nov. 3.

The Michigan Voting Dashboard, run by the Michigan Secretary of State, shows that 7.4 million people are registered to vote in the state as of Tuesday morning. Of that count, more than 2.1 million people have requested ballots, the Secretary of State office says. That's 17% ahead of this time before the 2022 election. 

And of those voters, 789,572, or 10.7%, have returned their ballots.

"With Election Day only two weeks away, now is the time to return your mail ballot if you have not already done so," said Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie. "Voters should avoid putting their ballot in the mail and instead hand-deliver it to your assigned drop box, clerk's office, or put it into the machine yourself at an early voting site or at a polling location on Election Day."

The vast majority of the ballots returned so far are absentee ballots, an option that has become as popular as Election Day voting in recent years. Michigan allows "no-reason" absentee ballots; voters just need to request one or ask to be placed on the permanent absentee ballot list.

Turnout in Michigan's August primary was just under 22% of registered voters, and far more people voted absentee or early in person than on Election Day.

The early in-person voting season is just starting, with 96 such votes cast as of Tuesday morning.

The City of East Lansing opened one of its two early in-person voting locations on Monday at WKAR Public Media Studio A on the Michigan State University campus; the other East Lansing site will open on Saturday. Only voters whose address is registered in East Lansing can vote at the MSU site. The Grand Rapids early voting center opened on Tuesday. Again, the Grand Rapids site is available only to Grand Rapids residents.

In most communities, early in-person voting begins on Saturday. That's the schedule Detroit's election office will follow, for example. Early voting locations and dates for your registered address can be found at the Michigan Secretary of State website.

Historically, the busiest days for early in-person voting in Michigan are Saturday, Sunday and Monday before Election Day, the Secretary of State says.

Michigan voter turnout set a record during the November 2024 election, with 74.6% of eligible voters casting ballots, the Michigan Secretary of State said. More than 60% of those ballots were submitted through absentee voting or early in-person voting.