2022 Midterm Elections: When, How To Get Absentee Ballots In MI

MICHIGAN — Michigan voters can now request an absentee ballot application for the Nov. 8 general election in Michigan. The ballots will be available 45 days before the election.

Voters should be aware the procedure to get a mail-in ballot they followed in the 2020 general election may not be the same now. Multiple states changed their election laws after the COVID-19 pandemic upended voting patterns in the presidential election, with 69 percent of Americans casting ballots nontraditionally, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Sponsors of new state laws on absentee voting say the changes improve election security, while critics say they make it harder for people to vote.

On Election Day, Michigan voters will determine the governor's race as well as other federal and statewide races. State election officials rejected a ballot initiative that would have allowed voters to decide whether abortion remains legal in the state. That petition, however, could still find its way onto the ballot through the courts.

All registered voters in Michigan can request an absentee ballot, and have until 8 p.m. on Election Day to complete the ballot and return it to the clerk's office. The voter's signature must be on the return envelope and match the signature that's on file. If the voter needed assistance, then the signature of the person who helped the voter must also be on the return envelope.

Only the voter, a family member or person residing in the voter's household, a mail carrier or election official is authorized to deliver your signed absent voter ballot to your clerk's office.

In the 2020 presidential election, 43 percent of voters cast absentee ballots by mail and 26 percent voted in person before Election Day, according to the Census Bureau. Four years earlier, 21 percent of voters mailed in their ballots and 19 percent voted in person before Election Day.

Among groups seeing increases in absentee or early voting in 2020 were voters over 65, those with a bachelor’s degree, women, and Asian and Hispanic voters, according to the Census Bureau.

A majority of Michiganders voted nontraditionally, meaning they voted by mail or early. It was a significant change from 2016 when less than 35 percent voted nontraditionally.

Michigan does allow in person absentee voting beginning Sept. 29. A ballot initiative to expand voting rights in Michigan was also reject by the state's board of canvassers. The proposal would have required at least nine days of early voting, as well as other changes in Michigan.

Absentee ballot requests are already underway in several states. Once the applications are verified, election officials begin mailing them during the times specified in state laws, according to information gathered by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Those officials will continue to verify and mail out absentee ballot requests for either a designated period or right up to Election Day. The NCSL said few states don’t specify when they start accepting absentee ballots, but in general:

• Ten states — Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin — begin mailing ballots to voters more than 45 days before Election Day.
• Eleven states — Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming — begin mailing ballots to voters 45 days before the election.
• Fourteen states — Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, South Carolina and Vermont — begin mailing ballots to voters 30-45 days before the election.
• Fourteen states — Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Utah and Washington — begin mailing ballots to voters fewer than 30 days before the election.
• Eight states — California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington — automatically mail absentee ballots to all voters.