2024 General Election: Important Return Dates
In Michigan, voted ballots from most absentee voters must be received by your city or township clerk by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day, November 5th, whether returned by mail or in person.
Absentee voting is available starting 40 days before Election Day, and no excuse is required. All voters must apply for an absentee ballot unless they are on the permanent mail ballot list. We encourage voters to submit their applications as soon as possible. You can return your absentee ballot application through the mail, in person at your local elections office, or online. Voted ballots from most absentee voters must be received by 8:00 pm on Election Day in order to be counted. You can sign up to track your absentee ballot and application on your Department of State website. All cities and townships can begin counting absentee ballots the Monday before Election Day. Cities and townships with a population of 5,000 or more can begin counting ballots as early as 8 days before Election Day.
Options to apply for an absentee ballot:
You can sign up for the Permanent Mail Ballot List by checking the box on your absentee ballot application that says, “automatically send me an absent voter ballot for each future election for which I’m eligible.”
Deadline: Online absentee applications may be submitted until 5 p.m. the Friday before Election Day.
Options for returning an absentee ballot:
Deadline: After receiving your absentee ballot, you have until 8pm on Election Day to complete and return the ballot, unless you are serving in the military or living overseas. Absentee ballots from military and overseas voters must be postmarked by Election Day and received by your local clerk within 6 days of the election.
Emergency Absentee Ballot:
If you have an emergency that prevents you from going to the polls you may request an emergency absentee ballot. Requests must be submitted after the deadline for regular absentee ballots has passed (5pm on the Friday before Election Day) but before 4pm on Election Day. The emergency must have occurred at a time in which it made it impossible to get to the polls.
Additional Information
Those who requested an absentee ballot but end up voting in person: Do not mail a ballot and vote in person. If a voter who has been issued an Absentee Voter Ballot decides to vote at the polls, they can bring their absentee ballot with them and insert it into the tabulator. The voter must check in with a poll worker before doing so. Please note: This option is not available in the City of Detroit. If the absentee ballot was lost or destroyed, the voter should go to their polling place, fill out the Application to Vote, and then vote a regular ballot.
Overseas citizens and U.S. military personnel can find information on how to register to vote and request an absentee ballot at the Federal Voting Assistance Program
The deadline to cure (correct) your absentee/ ballot is before 5pm on November 8, 2024, by filing out a cure form and returning it in person, by email, or by mail. The county clerk shall notify the voter of the ballot deficiency by phone, email, text message or mail. You can track the status of your absentee/mail ballot using your state’s online tool. Voters who cast a provisional ballot due to voter ID must submit their acceptable voter ID in-person at your city or township clerk’s office, by fax, or mail by November 11, 2024.
For information on federal campaign contributions, please visit Open Secrets.
For information on state campaign contributions, please visit your state's resource.
Information on local, state and federal candidates and ballot measures may be available here.
Every qualified voter in Michigan now has the right to at least one State-funded drop box for every municipality. In larger cities, voters now have the right to at least one drop box for every 15,000 registered voters. Drop boxes are distributed equitably throughout the municipality and are accessible 24 hours a day during the 40 days before an election until 8 pm on Election Day.
Ballot drop box locations are now available at Michigan.gov/Vote. Choose “Where are my clerk’s offices?”
In-person early voting is now available for every statewide and federal election in Michigan. For most voters, the early voting experience will be similar to voting at a polling place on Election Day.
Early voting will occur at “early voting sites,” which may be in a different location than your Election Day polling place. Cities and townships must offer early voting in each statewide and federal election for at least 9 consecutive days, beginning on the second Saturday before the election through the Sunday before the election, for at least 8 hours per day. Early voting may be offered in additional elections, for additional days (up to 29 days total), and for additional hours.
Because the days, times, and locations of early voting sites will likely vary by community, voters are encouraged to visit their state's resource or contact their local clerk for the most up-to-date information.
Your next election date can be found here https://www.vote411.org/michigan
Contact your local Local Clerk & Recorder for more information.
To register to vote in Michigan, you must be:
Incarcerated Voters & Returning Citizens:
In Michigan, you only lose your right to vote if you are currently incarcerated for a misdemeanor or felony conviction. If you lost your voting rights because of a conviction, you could register to vote immediately after release. Your voting rights are not restricted by pretrial detention, misdemeanors, probation, or parole.
Voters without traditional residence:
In Michigan, if you don’t have a permanent or fixed home, you can register to vote by providing the address of a street corner, park, shelter, or any other place you usually stay as your residence address. The mailing address can be a P.O. box, local shelter, advocacy organization, outreach center, or the home of someone who will accept mail for you.
If you hand-deliver your registration application, the staff person helping you will take your form and will ask for photo ID. If you have photo ID with you, you must show it. If you do not have photo ID, or do not have it with you when you register, you can sign an affidavit stating that you do not have photo identification.
If you are registering to vote for the first time in your state, and you mail in your application, you must provide a form of ID.
Another acceptable form of ID is the last four digits of the registrant’s social security number. See Michigan Voter Registration Form for additional information on the identification requirements and registration in general. Michigan Voter Registration Form
The residential address you use for voter registration must be the same as the address on your driver's license. Submitting a change for a driver's license address will be applied to your voter registration and visa versa.
You do not need an ID to vote in Michigan. If you have a photo ID with you when you go to vote, you must show it. If you do not have a photo ID, or do not have one with you, you may sign an AFFIDAVIT OF VOTER NOT IN POSSESSION OF PICTURE IDENTIFICATION and vote a regular ballot that will be counted on Election Day.
Voters can call or text 844-338-8743 at any time to reach VoteRiders Voter ID Helpline
Official results are never available on or before Election Day. Election officials are working around the clock to count an unprecedented number of ballots, and it’s essential that they take the time to make sure every vote is counted.
All cities and townships can begin counting absentee ballots on the Monday before Election Day, and cities and townships with a population of 5,000 or more can begin counting ballots as early as 8 days before Election Day. Provisional ballots begin being counted 6 days after the election.
Official election results will be uploaded on Michigan’s Secretary of State website, no later than the 20th day after Election Day.
Official ResultsYou are a Military or Overseas voter if you are in uniformed services, living overseas OR a spouse or dependent of a uniformed services voter. To get registered and vote, you can utilize Overseas Vote Foundation. In Michigan, absentee ballots from military and overseas voters can be counted if postmarked by Election Day and received within 6 days of the election.
If you have additional questions about elections and voting overseas you can use our state specific elections official directory or contact the Overseas Vote Foundation.
You can make sure we have safe, fair, and efficient elections for all. Become a poll worker today!
Registered voters and Michigan residents who are 16 or 17 years of age may serve as poll workers.
To sign up, contact your local clerk’s office or fill out an application on the Department of State’s website.
Polling places will be open from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm local time on Election Day.
You can find your polling place by utilizing your state resource.
If you have further questions on your polling place location, please contact your city or township clerk.
Michigan is an “open primary” state. This means that you can vote for either party. This decision does not register you with that party, and it is a private decision.
If you have any questions about your state’s primary election, please contact your local election officials.
A voter may be asked to vote a provisional ballot if their name doesn't appear on the registration list.
Important: Before completing the provisional balloting process, because your name does not appear on the registration list, you should consider going in person to your local clerk's office on Election Day to register to vote. After you register, you will be able to vote using a normal ballot that will be counted on Election Day.
If you’re at the correct polling place but your name does not appear on the registration list, you cannot produce a registration receipt, and you do not re-register on Election Day at your local clerk's office, you may vote a provisional ballot at your polling place. In order to get a provisional ballot, you must:
You may ask election workers for help in filling out these forms.
If a voter can provide a photo ID with an address that renders them eligible to vote in that polling place, their provisional ballot will be counted on Election Day. If not, the ballot will be placed in a provisional ballot security envelope and returned to the clerk’s office. The voter has six days after Election Day to satisfy the residency and/or identification requirements at their clerk’s office in order for their ballot to be counted.
Any action or physical barrier that prevents voters with disabilities from casting a ballot is unacceptable. To ensure that proper accessibility is maintained, federal and state laws require polling places to remove or make accommodations for any barriers that prevent voters with disabilities from voting.
Care should be taken to ensure that the polling place is accessible: doors should not be blocked, alternatives to stairs such as ramps or elevators should be available, and lighting and seating should be adequate. Furthermore, at least one voting station should be adapted to allow a person to vote while seated.
If you require assistance in casting a ballot, you may choose a person to help you provided that the person is not your employer, an agent of your employer, or an officer or agent of your union.
If you or someone you know requires special access to the polls, it is important to call the clerk's office ahead of time to make sure your voting site is free of obstructions. Precincts must also offer curbside voting if the polling location is not accessible to voters with physical disabilities. For more information, contact your local clerk. Hearing impaired residents with questions may contact the Department of State's Bureau of Elections by TTY at (517) 322-1477.
For more information, you can utilize the American Association of People With Disabilities (AAPD) resource.
Registration is available at any time up through Election Day - register to vote today!
See below for details on how you can register to vote.
Prior to the 14th day before an election, you have many ways to register to vote:
Beginning on the 14th day before the election and through 8 p.m. on Election Day, you have one way to register to vote: visit your city or township clerk’s office. You must show proof of where you live. Documents must have your name and current address. You can show a digital copy of any document. Acceptable documents include:
Time off to vote is subject to the employer, there is no requirement for employers to grant time off to vote for employees.
To verify your voter registration status
click here!The voting system used in Michigan is optical scan.
Optical Scan: With this system, the voter will receive a ballot to take to a private table or booth. Voters fill out paper ballots that get scanned into a computer. The paper ballot has the names of the various candidates and ballot measures printed on it. With a pen, the voter will fill in a little box or circle or fill in the space between two arrows. When the voter is finished filling out all the cards, they may bring the cards over to a ballot box, where poll workers will show them how to put the paper ballot into a computer
For voting locations using tabulators, this is typically how voting works. Once the voter has completed marking the ballot either with a pen from the voting booth or by a ballot marking device (Voter Assist Terminal-VAT), the voter puts the ballot into a secrecy sleeve with the ballot stub exposed and proceeds to the precinct tabulator. The voter should hand the precinct worker the application to vote. The precinct worker will check that the number on the ballot stub and Application to Vote match. The precinct worker will tear off the ballot stub and instruct the voter to feed the ballot into the tabulator.
You can learn more about voting systems by checking out the Elections Assistance Commission's (EAC) resource.
Department of State
Michigan Department State
Lansing 48018
LWV volunteers work year-round to register new voters, host community forums and debates, and provide voters with election information they need.
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