Nearly twice as many Michigan absentee ballots requested as in 2018

Almost twice as many absentee ballots have been requested in Michigan for the upcoming midterm elections as were requested in 2018.

Just over 1.7 million absentee ballots have been sent to Wolverine State voters for November’s elections, with less than three weeks left until Election Day, according to the Michigan Department of State. Of these ballots, 432,960 have been returned so far.

At the same point in the 2018 midterm elections, the state had sent out 912,872 ballots to voters.

Michigan’s race for governor between incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and her Trump-backed Republican challenger Tudor Dixon is among the most-watched gubernatorial races in the country, drawing in some of the biggest names in politics. 

Former President Trump stumped for Dixon in Warren, Mich., earlier this month, and former President Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) recently announced rallies in Detroit and Oshkosh in the final weeks of the election.

Some surveys show Whitmer with a double-digit lead over Dixon, including a Detroit News-WDIV-TV poll from earlier this month that placed Whitmer ahead by 17 points. However, others show Dixon closing in on the incumbent governor, with just 5 or 6 points separating the two.

Another state with several competitive races, Georgia, has also seen a surge in early voting this cycle. Almost twice as many Georgia voters showed up for the first day of in-person early voting as did in the 2018 midterm elections, with 131,318 ballots cast in-person on Monday. In 2018, 70,849 ballots were cast in-person on the first day of early voting.

Monday’s numbers nearly matched the number of ballots cast in-person on the first of early voting in 2020 — a presidential election year — when 136,739 voters cast their ballot. Presidential election years typically see far larger turnout than midterm election years.