Nearly 1 in 4 Michigan voters have submitted ballots or voted early, state officials say

Michigan voters have returned 1,704,715 ballots in advance of the Nov. 3 election, the Michigan Secretary of State says. That's 23% of the registered voters. 

The increase in absentee voting and early-in person voting has been steady in the past week, with 18.8% having submitted their ballots as of Tuesday and 16.4% as of Monday. 

Michigan has 7,412,507 active registered voters as of Thursday.   

Absentee voter season began on Sept. 24, when election clerks started mailing ballots to those who had already requested one or are on the permanent absentee voter list. There have been 1,346,372 absentee voter ballots returned as of Thursday. 

A few communities, such as East Lansing, started early in-person voting on Oct. 19. For the rest of the state, including Detroit, early in-person voting started on Saturday. There have been 358,343 early in-person ballots cast as of Thursday. 

Election Day voting will be available from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time. Most of Michigan is in the Eastern time zone; a few counties in the Upper Peninsula are in the Central time zone. 

When are ballots counted? 

Regardless of when a Michigan voting ballot is turned in, none are tabulated by the local election clerks until after the polls close at 8 p.m. local time on Election Day. 

CBS News and CBS News Detroit will provide live coverage of election results on air and online throughout the evening.  

Voter eligibility  

Those who are eligible to vote in Michigan are age 18 on Election Day, are U.S. citizens, and are Michigan residents.    

You can check your sample ballot, voter registration status, early in-person voting location and Election Day voting location at Michigan.gov/vote.