Voter turnout shatters recent records for Michigan primary elections

Paul Egan | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Who survived Michigan's primary election? All signs pointed to a high turn out for Michigan's 2018 primary election. Here are the candidates voters chose to put on the November ballot.

LANSING – Voter turnout in Tuesday's primary election in Michigan broke records going back at least as far as 1978, a state elections official confirmed Wednesday.

More than 2.1 million votes were cast, and based on still incomplete and unofficial election returns, it appears voter turnout — measured by the percentage of registered voters who cast ballots — was close to 29 percent.

When turnout is measured based on the number of Michigan residents who are of voting age — the way the state tracks its historical data — Tuesday's figure was slightly lower, at 27 percent.

But both the total number of votes cast and the 27 percent turnout beat primary records of just more than 1.7 million votes cast in the 2002 gubernatorial primary and the previous high turnout percentage of 24.4 percent, set in 1982. Those numbers were the highest recorded in the state, going back at least as far as 1978, records show.

The record numbers likely help account for precincts running out of ballots Tuesday at numerous polling places in Oakland County and elsewhere.

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"It's great to see so many Michigan residents vote in the primary, which are too often the forgotten elections," said Fred Woodhams, a spokesman for the Michigan Secretary of State's Office.

"Contested primaries up and down the ticket and among the parties captured the attention of voters."

The results show Democratic voters, in particular, are more energized than they were the last time Michigan had a gubernatorial election with contested nominations in both parties.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, just over 2.1 million votes had been cast for governor, shattering recent turnout results for a midterm primary election.

Democratic candidates for governor had received more than 1.1 million votes, while Republican candidates for governor had received about 986,000 votes.

In the 2010 primary, the most recent comparable election, fewer than 1.7 million people voted, with just over 1 million votes cast for Republican candidates for governor and 529,000 votes cast for Democratic candidates. Turnout that year was pegged at 21.9 percent, based on a voting age population of 7.62 million.

Republican pollster Steve Mitchell attributed the strong turnout to "an enormous interest in politics" and many competitive statewide races with huge amounts spent on TV advertising.

The 2010 primary is not entirely comparable to the 2018 primary because while there was considerable money spent on the Republican side of the gubernatorial ballot that year, there wasn't much advertising in the Democratic race between former House Speaker Andy Dillon and then-Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, the eventual nominee, he said. There also was not a U.S. Senate primary that year, he added.

It remains to be seen how the results will translate to the general election on Nov. 6, Mitchell said.

"There is no doubt Democrats are as energized and as enthusiastic as I have seen them," he said. "That's because of the strong anti-Trump dislike in the Democratic Party."

He said "the question is, will Republicans vote in equal numbers in the general election?"

In Oakland County on Tuesday, about 181,000 ballots were cast for Democratic candidates for governor and about 131,000 for Republican candidates for governor, according to unofficial results on the county clerk's website.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.