LANSING, Mich. — Michigan’s top election official is urging people with absentee ballots to return them to their local clerks’ offices or dropboxes instead of using the mail to ensure they’re counted in the Aug. 4 statewide primary.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson gave the guidance Tuesday, a week before the election. A ballot must be received by 8 p.m. on election night to be counted.
Voters can return their ballots to the dropboxes in their cities or townships. A list can be found online.
Benson also said all absentee ballot requests should be made in person at the clerks’ offices. Voters should prepare to both request and vote their ballots in the same visit due to the possibility of postal delays.
Nearly 2 million absentee ballots had been issued as of Tuesday, 3.6 times the 546,000 that were issued at the same point in 2016. About 903,000 had been returned, a nearly threefold increase from four years ago.
Absentee voting is on the rise following the approval of no-reason absentee voting in 2018 and is being emphasized as a safer option than in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic.
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