The legal framework governing how Michigan residents vote has been drastically overhauled since 2020, with November’s election representing a pressure test for the new system.

Since 2020, Michigan has introduced a raft of new voting laws after the state passed a ballot proposal in 2022 amending its constitution, according to Erica Peresman, a senior adviser to Promote the Vote, a coalition of Michigan organizations focused on voting.

Chief among the changes is that every municipality in Michigan is now required to offer early voting for at least nine consecutive days starting on the second Saturday before Election Day and ending on the Sunday before Nov. 5 for at least eight hours each day. That is in addition to no-reason absentee voting, which Michigan has had statewide since 2019.

It will be the first time the state utilizes early voting in a general election. But because of the wide-ranging changes in the state’s election law, it is not known what election-related problems could pop up on Election Day, according to Peresman.

The reforms simultaneously provide opportunities and present challenges to former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris as the economy and Israel–Hamas war in Gaza roil their respective campaigns in the important blue wall state.

New voting laws in Michigan

Besides allowing for early voting, new voting rules in the state include a permanent absentee ballot list, and mandatory drop boxes, among others.

Another significant change is the implementation of a permanent absentee ballot list. Starting in May 2023, registered voters have been able to apply to automatically receive an absentee ballot by mail before every election. Municipal clerks can also begin tabulating absentee ballots eight days before Election Day.

Meanwhile, for absentee ballot applications and absentee ballots, the state of Michigan is now required to pay for the postage on envelopes that voters use to return their ballot applications and ballots. The absentee ballots of Michigan military voters and Michigan voters living overseas can be accepted if they are postmarked by Election Day and received by the relevant clerk’s office within six days of Nov. 5. 

Every Michigan municipality is also required to have at least one secure drop box for voters to return their absentee ballot applications and absentee ballots, which must be accessible 24 hours a day during the 40 days before Election Day and until 8 p.m. on Nov. 5. Larger municipalities are required to have one drop box for every 15,000 registered voters.

Voters are required to be informed of any problems with curing their absentee ballot applications or absentee ballots and how they can rectify the issues.

Possible election-related problems in Michigan

It is hard to predict what election-related problems may be encountered in Michigan before, on, or after Election Day, particularly in the crucial population centers of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Kent counties, according to Peresman. Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties are near Detroit in the state’s southeast, while Kent County includes Grand Rapids to the northeast.

But Peresman, who was the Michigan Democratic Party’s former voter protection director, contended that the new early voting and tabulation laws could mean results are reported earlier than they were in 2020, “diminishing the disinformation and conspiracy theories that proliferated” four years ago.

“But there is no guarantee of that,” she said. “Early voting is new, and we don’t know what percentage of voters will choose to use it. Clerks are not required to tabulate absentee ballots before Election Day, and many who were eligible to do it before the August primary did not. Moreover, disinformation about the 2020 election persists in Michigan, and efforts to sow doubts about the 2024 election continue to grow.”

Wayne State University political science professor Jeffrey Grynaviski agreed in part, adding that there are no statutory restrictions on food and drink being distributed outside polling places in Michigan.

“With regard to election interference laws like those in Georgia about food and drinks passed out in long lines, conflicts that I observe in other states over ballot accessibility because of long lines, or the possibility that someone’s vote could be bought by a bottle of water or a snow cone are seemingly less relevant in Michigan because of universal access to absentee ballots,” he said.

Voting timeline in Michigan

Michigan residents can apply to vote absentee by mail, drop box, or at a clerk’s office and will start receiving their ballots on Sept. 26, according to Grynaviski, who is based in Detroit.

Mandatory early in-person voting in Michigan starts on Oct. 26 and ends on Nov. 3, but may begin earlier in some municipalities. For example, early in-person voting in Detroit starts on Oct. 21.

Election Day in-person voting in Michigan starts at 7 a.m. on Nov. 5 and ends at 8 p.m. local time, with most of the state in the eastern time zone except for four counties in the upper peninsula, which are in the central time zone.

All voting in Michigan is conducted using paper ballots, which are then processed by optical scan tabulators.

Voting eligibility and ID requirements in Michigan

Voters in Michigan are required to be at least 18 years old, U.S. citizens, and residents of the state who have lived in their current city or township for at least 30 days, according to Wayne State University’s Grynaviski. Those serving a jail or prison term are ineligible to cast a ballot.

Michigan residency can be demonstrated by a driver’s license or state ID, utility bill, bank statement, paycheck or government check, or another government document, Grynaviski said. The 2022 ballot proposal also expanded acceptable forms of ID to include those issued by educational institutions and municipal governments. 

Michigan residents can register to vote online or by mail until Oct. 21, after which they can do so in person at their clerk’s office until 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Every Michigan resident voting in-person is asked to show an approved photo ID, per Peresman, of Promote the Vote.

“However, registered voters who do not have photo ID or do not have photo ID with them can sign an affidavit of identity and vote a regular ballot,” she told the Washington Examiner.

When votes can be counted in Michigan

Under a new law implemented this year, Michigan municipalities with populations of more than 5,000 people can start tabulating absentee ballots eight days before Election Day, although results cannot be generated, printed, or reported before 8 p.m. on Nov. 5, according to Peresman. All municipalities can then start processing absentee ballots on the Monday before Election Day.

Absentee ballot tabulation can be done in polling places, but larger municipalities tend to have “absent voter counting boards” that process their absentee ballots in separate absentee ballot counting facilities, including city halls and convention centers, Peresman said. Provisional ballots can also be tabulated by clerks within six days after Election Day if officials determine that the person was registered to vote and their identity and residence have been confirmed. 

Grynaviski added, “The rules for counting absentee votes vary from community to community in Michigan and according to the decisions of local election officials, presumably based on the resources available to local election officials and the expected number of absentee ballots.”

Certifying election results in Michigan

Each of Michigan’s 83 counties has a board of county canvassers, comprised of two Democrats and two Republicans, which canvasses and certifies the results from every municipality in the county, according to Peresman.

After the Boards of County Canvassers certify their results, which they must do within 14 days after Election Day, they report their totals to Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers, according to Peresman.

That body, which also comprises two Democrats and two Republicans, is responsible for certifying the state’s results within 20 days of Nov. 5. Canvasses can be expedited if the unofficial results find a margin of victory fewer than 25,000 votes. 

The 2022 ballot proposal amended Michigan’s state constitution to stipulate “that the outcome of every election in this state shall be determined solely by the vote of electors casting ballots in the election” and that the duty of the boards of canvassers is “ministerial, clerical, and nondiscretionary.”

Of the boards, Grynaviski added, “If they suspect fraud transpired, the Michigan law calls for suspected cases of election fraud to be forwarded to law enforcement for investigation.”

“A recount in Michigan is automatically triggered if the results are within 0.1% of the vote,” he said. “Otherwise, politicians usually have to pay for a recount.”

Per Peresman, “a candidate petitioning for a recount ‘must be able to allege a good-faith belief that but for fraud or mistake, the candidate would have had a reasonable chance of winning the election.’”

“The petition must be filed within 48 hours after the Board of State Canvassers completes the canvass,” she said. “The candidate must deposit a specified amount per precinct requested to be recounted, which starts at $25 per precinct and goes up depending on the number of votes separating the winning candidate from the petitioning candidate.”

Rules for poll watchers in Michigan

There are two types of poll watchers in Michigan, election challengers and poll watchers, according to Peresman.

“Challengers can be inside polling places, early voting sites, and absentee ballot counting facilities,” Peresman said. “They can stand behind processing tables, inspect but not handle materials and equipment, observe voting and ballot processing activity, and take notes. They are not allowed to talk to voters, but they are allowed to challenge the eligibility of voters to vote under certain circumstances by speaking to a designated ‘challenger liaison.’”

“They are also allowed to challenge election processes, including the way that poll workers are operating a polling place or processing absentee ballots at an absentee ballot counting facility, and notify the challenger liaison of perceived violations of election laws by third parties,” she added.

Poll watchers, too, can be inside polling places, early voting sites, and absentee ballot counting facilities, but only in public areas, per Peresman.

“They are not allowed to challenge voters or election processes,” she said. “They are also not allowed to speak to voters.”

Poll watchers can check polling place books, so long as they do not delay lines, Grynaviski continued. They cannot intimidate voters, wear electioneering clothing, or take audio or visual records, he said.

Ongoing election-related legal challenges in Michigan

Besides legal challenges regarding Kennedy’s and West’s ballot access and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel last year criminally charging 16 people for allegedly being part of Trump’s 2020 fake electors scheme, there have been election-related disputes over poll watchers in the state, according to Peresman.

“There is an ongoing legal challenge to the appointment of poll workers in Flint arising from the 2022 general election and a new legal challenge to the appointment of poll workers in Detroit arising from the August 2024 primary election,” she said. “Both of these challenges relate to the partisan balance of poll workers. The Flint lawsuit was dismissed by two lower courts and the plaintiffs are currently seeking leave to appeal it to the Michigan Supreme Court. The Detroit lawsuit is in its early stages.”

There have also been legal challenges against Benson, Michigan’s secretary of state, concerning voter rolls, some of which have been dismissed and some of which are ongoing, per Peresman.

“There is a pending legal challenge to[Gov[GovGretchen Whitmer (D-MI)]and the secretary of state’s designation of several state and federal offices as voter registration agencies, including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Small Business Administration,” she added.

Who is on the ballot in Michigan?

The following candidates are on the ballot in Michigan this November: Harris and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) for the Democratic Party; Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) for the Republican Party; Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat for the Libertarian Party, Jill Stein and Rudolph Ware for the Green Party; Randall Terry and Stephen E. Broden, U.S. Taxpayers Party; Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Nicole Shanahan, Natural Law Party; Cornel West and Melina Abdullah; and Joseph Kishore and Jerry White.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, last month denied Kennedy’s request to be removed from the state’s ballot, according to Grynaviski. Kennedy’s notice of withdrawal came after he suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Trump in August.

“Keeping Kennedy on the ballot was upheld by Michigan courts, at least for now,” Grynaviski told the Washington Examiner of this week’s judicial decision. “The Michigan courts also kept West on the ballot, at least for now. In both instances, the absentee ballots are about to drop and there’s not a lot of time to change the ballots.”

Who remains on the ballot is important in Michigan because Harris has a RealClearPolitics average 1.5 percentage point lead over Trump in the state when polling respondents are asked about a multicandidate race. When respondents are surveyed about a head-to-head matchup between Harris and Trump, that advantage, already within the statistical margin of error, narrows to an average 1.1-point edge.