Bedford Township sets one early voting site for all 14 precincts, open Oct. 24 to Nov. 1

TEMPERANCE, Mich. — Every voter in Bedford Township’s 14 precincts will have the same early voting site this fall: the township Government Center at 8100 Jackman Road. Early voting for the Nov. 3 election runs from Saturday, Oct. 24, through Sunday, Nov. 1, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, according to a notice on the township’s website.

Those nine days line up with the state minimum. For statewide and federal elections, Michigan requires at least nine consecutive days of early voting that end on the Sunday before Election Day, the Michigan Department of State says. The right to vote early came from a constitutional amendment voters approved in November 2022.

The township asks people to bring photo identification. The state notes that a photo ID is not required to cast a ballot, though; a voter without one can sign an affidavit and still vote.

Absentee voters have a few options. According to the township, a finished absentee ballot can go into one of its drop boxes, be handed in at the clerk’s counter or be run through the tabulator during early voting. Anyone who was issued an absentee ballot but wants to vote in person should bring it along, because it has to be either voted or surrendered to the clerk’s office.

Early voting works much like voting at a polling place on Election Day, the Department of State explains. Voters receive a ballot and feed it into a tabulator themselves, and no results from early voting sites are released until polls close at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3.

Before then, families have a free afternoon out on the same road. Bedford Alliance Church, 8645 Jackman Road, holds its Fall Family Fest on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 1 to 4 p.m. The church lists a zip line, a climbing wall, pony and hay rides, bounce houses and a petting zoo, with food trucks selling food and drinks. No registration is needed.

Sources:
Bedford Township, “November 3, 2026 Early Voting”, https://www.bedfordmi.org/_T4_R167.php
Michigan Department of State, “Early in-person voting”, https://www.michigan.gov/sos/elections/voting/early-in-person-voting
Bedford Alliance Church, “Fall Family Fest,” Oct. 17, 2026, https://bedfordalliance.church/event/family-fall-fest
Photo: Dwight Burdette, “Bedford Township Michigan Government Center,” Dec. 29, 2011, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), cropped and color-corrected, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bedford_Township_Michigan_Government_Center.JPG

Bedford Township

Tags: Bedford Township · Community · Elections · Festivals