More than 958,000 Michigan voters have asked for absentee ballots

Kathleen Gray | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Detroiters get a taste of new voting machines Detroit is the biggest of 60 Michigan cities that switched to the new voting machines.

If the number of absentee ballots in circulation in Michigan are any indication, voter turnout in Michigan is definitely going to break some records.

With just over two weeks before the Nov. 6 election, the number of voters who have asked for absentee ballots across the state is 958,560, nearly 200,000 more voters than requested ballots in the last midterm election in 2014. And the number of ballots returned so far this year — 297,641 — is nearly 100,000 more than were returned by this time in 2014.

“We’re going to see two more weeks of this and probably 200,000 more requests,” said Mark Grebner, who tracks voting trends at Practical Political Consulting in Lansing. “That’s a pretty substantially increased number of voters and the 4 million turnout number is looking more and more plausible.”

If 4 million voters turn out on Nov. 6, that would beat the previous best total of 3,852,008 voters in 2006. In the last gubernatorial election year of 2014, the turnout total was 3,188,956 and in 2010, the last really comparable gubernatorial election year when all the statewide seats were open, 3,268,217 Michiganders voted.

Michigan November Election Voter Guide Michigan's general election is on Tuesday, Nov. 6. Use the Free Press' voter guide to learn about the candidates in races up and down the ballot in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties



Type in your ZIP code to learn about races that will be on your ballot.

Can't see the address field? Click here. iframe not supported.

More: Michigan Election 2018: Problems at the polls? How to report them

The August primary election broke records too, when more than 2.2 million people voted, which was the highest number in at least the last 40 years. The highest previous primary election turnout was in 2002 when 1,722,869 people cast ballots.

Grebner said that more and more people are using absentee ballots to cast votes and up to 30 percent of the turnout will be by absentee voters. While some of those votes are people who traditionally vote by absentee ballot, such as senior citizens, others may be trying to avoid long lines that are being predicted because of the ban on straight-ticket voting that was passed by Republicans in the state Legislature in 2015 and upheld by the courts this past summer.

Straight-ticket voting allows voters to fill in one box on the ballot to support all Democrats or all Republicans all the way down the ballot. But for this election, voters will have to fill in circles for all the races on the ballot.

In the primary, the increased turnout benefited Democrats more than Republicans with 1,131,447 people voting in the Democratic primary for governor and 989,576 voting in the GOP primary. Grebner predicted that will be the case for the general election because increased turnout generally benefits Democrats.

“Basically, increasing the turnout increases the Democrats’ advantage by about 200,000 votes,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that Republicans can’t win, but it’s a higher hill to climb.”

Voters can still obtain an absentee ballot by contacting their local clerks.

Contact Kathleen Gray: kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal