The Michigan Department of State and Bureau of Elections are the official state source for information on Michigan elections and voting in Michigan.
You can also find official information at your county, city, or township clerk’s website. Find your clerk’s office at Michigan.gov/Vote.
Michigan voters are a frequent target for election misinformation – get your facts here!
Per the Michigan Constitution, every jurisdiction must have at least nine days of early in-person voting, but some places have more!
To find out the exact dates, times and locations for your local early voting, visit your local clerk’s website or Michigan.gov/Vote up to 60 days before Election Day.
If you receive a phone call, text, mailer, or other communication claiming that early voting is starting on a date later than Oct. 26, or that Election Day is on a date later than Nov. 5, please let us know at Misinformation@Michigan.gov.
In Michigan, and in every state, only U.S. citizens are eligible to register to vote or cast a ballot in any state or federal election.
There is no evidence to support claims that large numbers of noncitizens have voted in past elections or are registering to vote in 2024. In fact, the name of everyone who registers or votes in an election is a public record – it would be very easy to see if noncitizens were registering or voting in large numbers.
Learn more: Only U.S. citizens can vote
Michigan’s Qualified Voter File (QVF) is a secure voter records database that sends and receives regular updates of a voter’s ballot activity. If a voter submits an absentee ballot or casts a ballot at an early voting site, that information is updated in the QVF and flagged for election workers to prevent double voting.
If a voter submits an absentee ballot and then votes at an early voting site, the absentee ballot will be rejected and does not count.
If a clerk receives multiple absentee ballot applications for a voter, only one absentee ballot is issued to that voter after the clerk has verified that the signature on the absentee ballot application matches the voter’s signature on file. Election workers also verify the signature on the ballot envelope when it is returned by the voter.
State and federal law oversees the maintenance of Michigan’s Qualified Voter File. When election mail (like a voter information card or absentee ballot application) sent to a voter by a clerk is returned by the U.S. Postal Service as “undeliverable,” the clerk will send a notice of registration cancellation to the voter’s Michigan address. If the voter does not respond, they are marked inactive – they can still vote but if they do not vote or contact their clerk’s office within the next two federal election cycles, the voter’s registration is cancelled.
Michigan has done more in last five years to improve the accuracy of our voter rolls than in the previous two decades. Since 2019, the Bureau of Elections has cancelled more than 800,000 inactive voter registrations and identified an additional 610,000 slated for cancellation in 2025 and 2027 once the legally required two-federal election cycle period has passed.
The waiting period is required because sometimes the initial information suggesting that someone has moved does not mean they have actually changed their voting residency. For example, someone may have changed their address for one purpose (such as a temporary work assignment, school, or military service) but want to continue voting in Michigan as permitted under the law.
Learn more here: Voter registration cancellation procedures
By law, Robert Kennedy, Jr. cannot remove his name from Michigan’s general election ballot.
Even though Mr. Kennedy announced on Aug. 23 that he is suspending his campaign, Michigan law explicitly states that once a minor political party formally nominates and certifies a candidate, as the Natural Law Party did in April 2024, and that candidate accepts the nomination, as Mr. Kennedy did, that candidate “shall not be permitted to withdraw” (MCL 168.686a). Based on this law, the Michigan Bureau of Elections rejected the Kennedy campaign’s request to withdraw from the November ballot.
On Sept. 9, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that Kennedy must remain on the ballot as the Natural Law Party presidential candidate.
Students can choose to register at either their campus address or their permanent home address, even if they’re an out of state student attending school in Michigan. Like every voter, students can only cast one ballot per election.
Michigan law allows all voters to register to vote and cast a ballot on the same day – including on Election Day. Any voter standing in line to vote at a polling place by 8 p.m. on Election Night will be allowed to register and cast a ballot.
Learn more about student voting: Student voting
You can legally vote in Michigan as long as you are Michigan resident, a U.S. citizen, 18 years old on or before Election Day, and not currently serving a sentence in jail or prison. Citizens with past convictions, who are on parole, who are on probation or who are waiting to be sentenced either in or out of jail are all eligible to vote.
Starting in 2024, 16 and 17-year-old Michigan residents can preregister to vote under state law.
You can preregister online at Michigan.gov/Vote, or print, complete, and mail the following form to your local clerk’s office. You can also contact your local clerk to request a form be mailed to you.
If you preregister, you can participate in early in-person or absentee voting for an election, as long as you will be 18 on or before the date of that election.
Learn more about voter preregistration: Preregistration
Michigan voters passed Proposal 2 in 2022 to give every voter the right to cast a ballot early and in person at an early voting site before Election Day. Early voting is available for every statewide and federal election. Forty-seven states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands all offer in-person early voting to citizens.
Voters can find their assigned early voting site(s) up to 60 days before Election Day at Michigan.gov/Vote.
Learn more about voting at an early voting site: Early in-person voting
Michigan law allows same-day voter registration, meaning that eligible citizens can register and vote up to and on Election Day. Voters may register or update their voter registration in person at their city or township clerk’s office through 8 p.m. on Election Day. Citizens must bring proof of residency with them to their clerk’s office if attempting to register on Election Day.
You may receive an application for an absentee ballot in the mail from your clerk, a political party, a campaign, or a nonpartisan organization. Third party organizations are legally permitted to send voters applications for absentee ballots. If you receive one of these applications, you can either complete it and return it to your clerk’s office or recycle the application. Voters can always request an absentee ballot from their local clerk or at Michigan.gov/Vote.
Absentee ballots and ballot applications are rejected if they don’t have a signature that matches the signature on the voter’s file. Only one vote per voter will be counted.
2020 was the first statewide election year that all Michigan voters had the right to vote absentee for any reason– following a voter-approved constitutional amendment passed in 2018 – and the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure all voters knew they had the right to vote conveniently and safely by mail, Secretary Benson directed the Bureau of Elections to mail absentee ballot applications to every registered voter. Many Republican and Democratic secretaries of state across the country did the same and in subsequent lawsuits, multiple judges ruled that this was within Secretary Benson’s authority.
Michigan voters passed Proposal 2 in 2022, allowing registered voters to decide to be placed on a permanent absentee ballot list so their local clerk will automatically mail them an absentee ballot for every local, state, and federal election.
If you receive election mail for someone who no longer lives at your address, you can help your clerk update the state’s voter rolls. Write “no longer at this address” on the mail and put it back in the mailbox. The U.S. Postal Service will then notify your clerk that the election mail has been returned as “undeliverable.” The clerk will send a notice of cancellation and move the voter to inactive status.
If you receive election mail for someone in your home who has died, you can write “deceased” on the mailing and put it back in the mailbox. If a family member has died, you can contact your clerk in writing to inform them of their death or send an obituary or death notice to the clerk who can use the information to cancel the voter’s registration.
Under Proposal 2 of 2022, the state is constitutionally required to provide at least one secure ballot drop box for every jurisdiction and one drop box for every 15,000 voters in a jurisdiction.
Using a Sharpie permanent marker to mark a ballot will not invalidate or cancel a ballot or vote.
If the marker does bleed through to the other side, ballots are designed so that the bleed through does not touch or come near a voting area on the other side of the ballot – it will not alter or cancel any vote on the opposite side.
The Sharpie is the recommended marking instrument by voting machine manufacturers and is preferable to an ink pen because it dries quickly and will not leave residue on the ballot scanner.
For the privacy and security of other voters and election workers, voters are not allowed to hold up their ballot for a selfie or a photo. Voters can take selfies outside of the area where people are voting and are encouraged to do so!
Local clerks are required to maintain the security of the drop boxes and only people authorized by the clerk are allowed to open drop boxes or handle their contents. Both absentee ballot applications and ballots may be returned to a ballot drop box, which must be available 24 hours a day in the 40 days before an election. Ballots must be accepted until 8 p.m. on Election Day.
State law prohibits electioneering within 100 feet of a polling place entrance. Candidates, people with campaign materials, and people electioneering must follow the 100-foot requirements. Candidates can only be inside that boundary when they are voting. These laws apply to in-person early voting sites as well as Election Day polling locations.
Every voter in Michigan has the right to cast their ballot free from intimidation and without being solicited for votes when they are within the 100-foot boundary. Violators may face criminal charges.
Polls are open on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. for all elections. Voters who are in line at their polling place by 8 p.m. on Election Day have the right to cast their ballot. An election inspector will announce that it is 8 p.m. and will mark the last person in line that is eligible to vote.
Voters who cast a ballot at an early voting site will feed their completed ballot into the tabulator, however, clerks and election workers will not see a running total of votes cast for candidates. Clerks are not permitted to start calculating results until the polls close on Election Night.
Michigan passed a law in 2023 to allow clerks in the state’s large jurisdictions to begin processing absentee ballots the week before Election Day. All jurisdictions can begin processing ballots the day before Election Day.
Absentee ballot processing includes checking that the signature on the ballot envelope matches the signature on file with the voter’s registration, updating the QVF to show that the voter has cast a ballot, opening the ballot envelope, and running the ballot through the tabulator where the votes are stored. Clerks cannot calculate or report vote totals until the polls close on Election Night.
Machine counting of votes is required by law. Data shows that machine counting is more accurate, less expensive, and faster than hand-counting ballots.
All Michigan jurisdictions purchase and maintain optical scan machines that use paper ballots scanned through electronic tabulators. Paper ballots and printed vote tallies are kept and can be recounted and reviewed.
Voting machines cannot be connected to the internet while ballots are being tabulated. Only after the counting has finished and a paper record has been created will jurisdictions connect the machines to send electronic unofficial results to the county clerk. They also bring a hard copy of the paper tally to the county clerk to make sure all vote counts are accurate.
Bipartisan boards of canvassers at the county and state level are required by law to affirm the will of the people by certifying the results of elections. Our legislature has passed, and the Governor has signed, legislation making that law even stronger – up to and including civil or criminal charges for failure to act in accordance with their duties under the law.
Learn more: AG Nessel, Secretary Benson on Duty of Canvassers to Certify Election Results
Actual voter fraud in Michigan is extremely rare and isolated. The many security checks in our system prevent it, and when it does happen, the perpetrators are caught and prosecuted. If you see something you believe to be election fraud, a full description of the matter involving any suspected illegal activity should be reported to the following:
