Michigan voters: More than 3.1 million vote absentee in 2020 general election

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — As Election Day dawned Tuesday, more than 3.1 million Michigan voters had already returned their absentee ballots.

More than 3.5 million had requested and received the ballots, allowing them to vote prior to Election Day, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Monday.

Ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election, Benson had mailed absentee ballot applications to all of the state's 7.7 million qualified voters in May. According to Benson, she mailed those applications then to provide state voters with alternate voting opportunities amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to limit the sizes of public gatherings.

• Vote: Absentee voting gains popularity in Michigan; record use expected for November election
  
• Clerk: Record-breaking absentee ballot requests, don't wait to vote

Benson estimated complete election results won't be tabulated and processed until the Friday following Election Day.

"We should know the winner in Michigan sometime this week," Benson said. "We have 3 million absentee ballots that will begin being counted on Election Day. In August, it took our clerks 40 hours to count 1.6 million absentee ballots and for this election, we have twice that. So it could take up to 80 hours."

President Donald Trump and others have claimed, without evidence, that what happens behind closed doors with election workers is likely to become widespread fraud. State and local election officials insist there’s a robust system to catch fraud and to ensure every eligible vote counts.

"It's important to get it right," Benson said. "Every state will be focusing diligently on counting every ballot. Candidates can say whatever they want but that doesn't change the fact that voters choose who wins an election and that our election workers will ensure every vote is counted."

Benson said she recognizes that voters feel some anxiety about the 2020 election.

"We want to move on and know the results of the election but we have to ensure accuracy and we fully anticipate that some candidates may try to build a sense that they may have won prior to the voters affirming that through the count of the ballot," Benson said.

"So I recommend that people just block out that noise. You are going to hear a lot of other misinformation in the next few days," Benson said. "Focus on the count, focus on the facts and the data and what we, as secretaries of the state and election administrators, deliver to the public throughout this entire process."

Absentee totals county by county:

• Kalamazoo County: 86,775 issued, 63,915 received
• Van Buren County: 21,690 issued, 19,130 received
• Barry County: 18,129 issued, 16,110 received
• Calhoun County: 35,183 issued, 30,741 received

Kalamazoo County Clerk Tim Snow said he's seeing the number of absentee ballot requests increasing daily.

Michigan cities with populations over 25,000 could begin pre-processing ballots from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. the Monday before the election this fall, due to a recent state law change.

Beginning at 7 a.m. on Election Day, workers in both small and large municipalities break the seal on each ballot bag and recount all ballots inside to ensure the number of ballots in the bag matches the number written on the seal and has been logged in the clerk’s computer system.

Voter registration deadlines:

• Online: Oct. 19
• By mail: Received by the clerk no later than 5 p.m. Oct. 19
• In-person: Nov. 3

To see if you've applied to vote absentee or to check the status of your vote click here to access the state website information center.

• Read more: Step-by-step guide: How to register to vote in Michigan
  
• Absentee Ballots: State says 2.39 million absentee ballot requests have been made in Michigan so far
  

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