State’s mostly mail vote begins

Michigan absentee ballots aimed at limiting in-person voting

WARREN, Mich. — Michigan communities saw record turnout for local elections Tuesday, as voters participated in largely mail-based contests that could be a blueprint for the presidential battleground in November.

In a first, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office automatically sent absentee ballot applications to all 740,000 registered voters in roughly 50 municipalities — about 10 percent of the electorate — to discourage in-person voting in a state where nearly 4,200 people have died from coronavirus complications.

Turnout was projected to be at least 22 percent, nearly double the average for May elections.

Voters decided school tax, bonding and other proposals. Each jurisdiction had at least one place for in-person voting, though only about 850 people had done so as of 4 p.m.

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in March used her emergency powers to expand absentee voting by letting the state mail ballot applications with postage-paid return envelopes to every voter in 53 communities across 33 counties.

Normally in Michigan, it is up to voters to ask their local clerk for an absentee ballot. Some communities let voters request to join a permanent list to get an application every election, while others do not.

Absentee voting already is easier in the state under a 2018 constitutional amendment that lets voters cast an absentee ballot for any reason. More than 877,000 people voted absentee in the March 10 presidential primary, 39 percent of the nearly 2.3 million votes cast.