DETROIT, Mich. — Sunday is the final chance for Michigan voters to cast a ballot early and in person before Tuesday’s general election, closing out a nine-day window that has already pulled well over a million voters to the polls.
Early voting sites statewide opened Oct. 24 and have been required to stay open at least eight hours a day through Nov. 1, with some communities adding extra days. Michigan voters wrote the early option into the state constitution in 2022, when they approved an amendment guaranteeing every community a minimum of nine early voting days. Voters feed their own completed ballots into the tabulator, much as they would on Election Day.
Turnout was strong heading into the final week. With seven days to go, state election officials counted 1,392,170 ballots already cast, or 18.8% of the active registered voters in Michigan.
Anyone still holding a mail ballot can drop it at an early voting site before Election Day. Michigan also allows same-day registration: eligible residents who are not yet registered can go to their city or township clerk’s office with proof of residency up to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3, and vote on the spot.
Michigan is filling a U.S. Senate seat with no incumbent on the ballot, choosing a new governor and deciding a handful of tight congressional races, and the stakes have drawn a flood of television money. The ad-tracking firm AdImpact has tallied over $11 billion in campaign advertising aired or booked nationwide this cycle, the most expensive on record. Michigan’s Senate race alone accounted for close to $192 million in ads that had run or were reserved as of Oct. 12, by the firm’s count.
The Michigan Voting Dashboard posts daily counts of returned mail ballots and early votes through Election Day, and voters can look up their own early voting site, days and hours on the state’s election website.
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