One in three Michigan voters cast ballots before the polls opened Tuesday: what is still out and what to know before 8 p.m.

LANSING — By the time Michigan’s polls opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, about one in three of the state’s active registered voters had already cast a ballot.

State data showed turnout at 32.9% as Election Day began, CBS Detroit reported, up from 31.2% on Monday morning. The day before, the Michigan Department of State counted 2,313,165 ballots among 7.42 million active registered voters. At 32.9%, the Tuesday-morning total works out to about 2.44 million ballots, by our math.

That includes 750,469 people who voted in person at early voting sites, according to CBS Detroit. Most early sites closed Sunday, but 13 communities, including Detroit, kept them open Monday.

How we got here

At the close of the nine-day statewide early voting period on Sunday, Nov. 1, 743,450 voters had used an early site, the department said. Sunday was the busiest day, with 114,420 ballots. Those Monday sites added roughly 7,000 more by Tuesday morning.

Mail voting is still the bigger share. As of 7 a.m. Monday, 1,569,715 absentee ballots had been returned out of 2,174,646 requested, the department said, which left about 605,000 requested ballots not yet back. Subtracting the early in-person count from Tuesday’s total suggests roughly 1.69 million absentee ballots were in by Tuesday morning.

For comparison, 139,608 people voted early in person in the August primary, and 1,380,701 absentee ballots were returned, CBS Detroit reported. In the 2024 presidential election, more than 1.2 million Michiganders voted early in person. We tracked the numbers through the early voting period in our Oct. 29 look at early voting hours and turnout.

What to know before 8 p.m.

Polls are open until 8 p.m. local time, and anyone in line by 8 p.m. can vote. A few Upper Peninsula counties run on Central time.

Do not mail an absentee ballot now. Except for military and overseas voters, absentee ballots must reach the clerk’s office or an official drop box by 8 p.m. Tuesday to count. Voters can also bring a mail ballot to their polling place.

Eligible residents who are not registered can still register and vote the same day at their city or township clerk’s office with proof of residency. Polling places, sample ballots and ballot tracking are at mi.gov/vote.

Why results may take time

The department warned that unofficial results may take a while. Mail ballots dropped off Tuesday still must pass signature checks and be processed and tabulated, and big cities like Detroit run absentee counting boards. It told voters and the media to rely on county clerk websites for unofficial results. “Election officials will always prioritize accuracy over speed when counting ballots,” the department said.

Voters who see intimidation or interference at the polls should tell their local clerk, the department said.

Sources:
Michigan Department of State, “With less than 24 hours before polls open on Election Day, over 2.3 million voters have already cast their ballot” (Nov. 2, 2026; early voting totals, absentee requests and returns, deadlines, same-day registration, results timing), https://www.michigan.gov/sos/resources/news/2026/11/02/with-less-than-24-hours-before-polls-open-on-election-day-over
CBS Detroit, “One-third of Michigan’s active registered voters had voted by 7 a.m. on Election Day” (Nov. 3, 2026; 32.9%, 750,469 early in-person, primary and 2024 comparisons), https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/michigan-election-day-voter-turnout-early-voting-2026/
MLive, “More than 2.3 million ballots cast in Michigan ahead of Election Day” (Nov. 2, 2026), https://www.mlive.com/politics/2026/11/more-than-23-million-ballots-cast-in-michigan-ahead-of-election-day.html
Photo: Lorie Shaull, “Vote Here sign in Minneapolis, Minnesota,” Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vote_Here_sign_in_Minneapolis,_Minnesota_(50564083472).jpg

Lansing · Election 2026 coverage

Tags: Election 2026 · Michigan Secretary of State · Voter turnout · Absentee ballots · Early voting · Election Day