LANSING, Mich. — Michigan election officials said they were seeing slow to average turnout across the state on Election Day Tuesday for the first August primary to feature nine days of early voting.
The weather was rainy in much of Michigan as voters went to polling places to choose Democratic and Republican nominees for the November general election. As of Monday, more than 1 million people voted ahead of Election Day, using either the new early, in-person voting option or absentee ballots.
Clerks said the use of absentee ballots — roughly 970,000 completed absentee ballots had been returned as of Monday — the weather and a lack of competitive races at the top of both parties’ tickets were putting a damper on turnout.
Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini said the turnout in Michigan’s third largest county appeared to be pretty average for an August primary as of 1 p.m.
“I don’t think it’s anything too special,” Forlini said.
“It’s August, and people just aren’t into voting in August,” Forlini added.
In Grand Rapids, the state’s second largest city, Clerk Joel Hondorp, said turnout was about 15% as of early Tuesday afternoon. Four years ago, in August, about 27% of voters had cast ballots by the end of the primary.
“It’s been pretty slow,” Hondorp said.
Early, in-person voting, which was authorized through a successful 2022 ballot proposal, decreased for the August primary from the presidential primary in February. More than 78,000 people took advantage of early-in person voting for the Feb. 27 primary, while roughly 73,500 participated in early, in-person voting for Tuesday’s primary.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said the 5,000-person dip in the number of early, in-person voters from February to August reflects some “stability” in the number of people adopting the practice from one election to the next. Nonetheless, she said, officials will analyze early, absentee and same-day numbers after the primary to better understand voting preferences and what to expect in the fall.
“I hope we see more numbers in the fall of early voting and certainly into the future as well,” Benson said.
The absentee ballot total from Monday pointed to a decrease in turnout from August 2020 when 1.6 million absentee ballots were cast during the COVID-19 pandemic. For that election, which featured no competitive U.S. Senate primaries, the overall turnout hit about 2.5 million, an August primary record.
On Tuesday, Michigan voters were selecting a Democratic nominee and a Republican nominee for an open U.S. Senate seat, but former Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican, and current Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, were viewed as heavy favorites.
Comparisons of 2024 to the 2020 primary and general elections are a “bit of a challenge,” Benson said, in part because of the pandemic’s influence on how people voted and also because the 2020 elections had such significant turnout.
“The bottom line is people are embracing all across Michigan these new options to vote,” Benson said. “I think until we get through the fall, we won’t really know writ large what to make of the year. But we’re about on par for an August primary what we’ve seen in past primaries, not withstanding the spike in turnout that we saw in the August primary in 2020.”
In Canton Township, Clerk Michael Siegrist said he was seeing low turnout on Tuesday. Siegrist cited the focus on the presidential race — nothing about it was on the ballot Tuesday — and not having competitive contests as two of the reasons.
Bridgette Bowdler, the clerk in Grosse Pointe Park, said early voter turnout there had doubled for the August primary compared with the presidential primary in February, which she predicted would dampen in-person turnout on Tuesday.
“The rain has hurt us a little today, too,” Bowdler said Tuesday morning at City Hall.
Amelia Johnston, the Precinct 1 chairperson for Grosse Pointe Park, said it was difficult to determine what was slowing the turnout.
“It’s hard to tell if it’s slow because of the rain or because of early voting,” she said. “It’s hard to judge what’s normal because it’s still new.”
Benson’s office said several polling locations Tuesday morning were affected by the weather — largely power outages — forcing clerks to move the voting location elsewhere. The issue hadn’t disrupted voting, Benson said, as clerks were able to alert voters to the location change by online postings and notices at the affected precinct.
Communities where at least one precinct was affected by weather issues Tuesday morning include Royal Oak, Warren, Three Rivers, Grand Rapids, Clinton Township, Brady Township, Portage and Flint.
