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    • Michigan polls are open. What you need to vote
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    Michigan polls are open. What you need to vote

    Umito Posted on

    As polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday across Michigan, the final count of absentee ballots also begins — one of the key elements that delayed election results in this swing state during the most electoral cycle.

    Absentee ballots for all voters, except military and overseas voters, must be received by their local clerk by 8 p.m. Absentee ballots for military and overseas voters must be postmarked by Election Day and received within six days of the election.

    Is ID required to vote?

    Michigan voters who have a photo ID must show it at the polls. Acceptable forms of photo ID include a driver’s license, state ID card issued by Michigan or another state, federal, state, county issued ID or local, a US passport, a military ID card, a student ID from an educational institution. , tribal identification card or concealed pistol permit.

    Voters without a photo ID can vote after signing an affidavit stating they do not have a photo ID.

    Same day voter registration

    Under Michigan law, unregistered residents are allowed to register to vote Tuesday in person at their city or township clerk’s office before 8 p.m. After registering, a resident submits an absentee ballot to the clerk’s office.

    Qualifications include that you must be a resident of Michigan as well as a resident of your city or township for at least 30 days; a United States citizen; at least 18 years old; and not serving a prison or jail sentence.

    Acceptable proof of residency includes a Michigan driver’s license or state ID card, current utility bill, bank statement, college or university records, paycheck or government check , or any other government document.

    What should I do if I don’t know where my police station is?

    Michigan voters can find their polling location by visiting the Michigan Secretary of State’s voter information site. website.

    Counting of votes

    Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Monday she believes Michigan will have its final, unofficial results by midday Wednesday, if not sooner, and expressed confidence in a smoother counting process this year thanks to a new law allowing clerks to begin compiling mail. -in the votes last week. Polls close for in-person voting at 8 p.m. in most of Michigan.

    Preprocessing mail-in ballots put the state in an “extremely good position to handle late ballots” returned Tuesday, Benson said.

    “We will have a much smaller number of these ballots this time and a much higher capacity to process and tabulate these ballots efficiently, securely and accurately tomorrow,” Benson said Monday.

    “All that to say, we’ll see how things play out, but I’m very optimistic that we’ll have those unofficial results sooner than 2020.”

    More: Everything you need to know to vote on election day

    The ability to tabulate absentee ballots up to eight days before Tuesday means clerks have fewer absentee ballots to process and tabulate on Election Day; and in-person early voting options mean there will likely be fewer people in precincts than if the early voting option were not available.

    By the end of early voting Sunday, about 1.2 million residents had voted at in-person early voting sites across the state. And nearly 2 million people had returned their mail-in ballots.

    The combined 3.2 million voters represent about 44% of active registered voters in Michigan and about 58% of the nearly 5.6 million people who voted in the 2020 presidential election. These early voting results will be among the first published Tuesday evening.

    “You can expect ballots to be cast tomorrow at early voting centers and in-person at precincts, among the first numbers released in these early totals,” Benson said.

    “And you will also see, in some cases, ballots returned by mail or by drop boxes – mail-in ballots – being included in those totals as well. These will be the ones that are returned early.

    More: Our voter’s guide: the issues, key races, voting dates

    But even with that early turnout, there’s still plenty of work for clerks to process absentee ballots on Election Day, which will continue after 8 p.m.

    State rules now allow up to eight days of pre-processing and pre-tabulation of mail-in ballots made available to larger communities before Election Day. Under the new rules, many large communities could process their mail-in ballots and feed them into the tabulator before Election Day, but no results could be transmitted or released until 8 p.m. on Election Day.

    For cities like Detroit, this allocation meant that the state’s largest community was capable of tabulating approximately 95% of absentee ballots it’s received before Election Day, about 87,000 or 91,000 absentee ballots. This work should shorten what, in 2020, was a long process of counting absentees.

    But that doesn’t mean Detroit and other large communities will have their results at 8 p.m.

    After 8 p.m., officials in Michigan communities are expected to collect absentee ballots delivered Tuesday at several drop boxes, clerks’ offices and satellite clerks’ offices for processing and tabulation. This process may take some time and may result in batches of absentee ballots arriving late at counting centers after 8 p.m.

    In Detroit, specifically, another 22,000 mail-in ballots are still in circulation and some of them won’t be picked up until after 8 p.m. from drop boxes or clerks’ offices.

    Statewide, about 348,000 mail-in ballots were still outstanding Monday and could arrive to clerks by mail Tuesday, submitted in person or placed in a drop box. All these files must be processed throughout the day on Tuesday or after 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

    Additionally, the state’s third-largest community — the town of Warren in Macomb County — opted not to preprocess absentee ballots and begin the process at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

    The city had a total of nearly 28,000 absentee ballots requested and just over 22,000 ballots returned as of Monday evening, according to state data.

    Macomb County, which Trump won in his 2016 and 2020 presidential bids, has played a critical role in Trump’s vote count in each cycle. Additionally, there are several Macomb-based House races that could decide the majority in the lower house.

    —Beth LeBlanc

    Macomb County Races

    Macomb County voters will also decide the House race for the 10th District between Republican John James of Shelby Township and Democrat Carl Marlinga, a former Sterling Heights judge.

    Two years ago, James beat Marlinga by 1,600 votes, or 0.5 percentage points.

    In the Michigan House, Republicans must win two statewide seats and retain their current districts to gain a majority. There are two potentially close races in Macomb County: the 13th District between state Rep. Mai Xiong, D-Warren, and Republican Ronald Singer of Warren, and the 58th District between state Rep. Nate Shannon , D-Sterling Heights and Republican Ron. Robinson of Utica.

    Police called to polling place

    On Monday, Warren police said they were called to respond to multiple reports of disturbances during voting at Warren City Hall. The police were called to the town hall around 4:20 p.m., they said.

    Police said callers reported about 20 people were upset about a voting problem at City Hall. Officers arrived, found no active disturbance and spoke with the City Clerk and her staff.

    Election workers told police that a woman became upset after learning she would not be able to vote because polls closed at 4 p.m. They told police she left before officers arrived, authorities said. No arrests were made and no summons issued as officers left the scene shortly after.

    Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that it would send representatives to the polls in 27 states, including Michigan, to monitor Tuesday’s general election.

    Voting Monitors

    Federal officials will visit polling locations in Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Flint, Detroit, Hamtramck and Warren. Justice Department spokeswoman Aryele Bradford declined to comment on how the Michigan communities were chosen.

    On Monday, officials with the Detroit NAACP branch said they had set up a hotline to help voters with questions and report any signs of election irregularities. The hotline (313) 664-2424 will operate while polling stations are open.

    — Charles E. Ramirez

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