Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


The Genoa Township clerk delivered a report on early voting and the high cost associated with it during Monday night’s board meeting.

2024 is the first election year with a constitutionally required minimum of nine days of early in-person voting under Proposal 2, passed by Michigan’s voters in 2022.

Communities are required to offer nine days of early voting, and Sunday marked the final day to do so.

Genoa Township Clerk Polly Skolarus stated they were open for 8 hours on each of the nine days. She reported that 198 people out of their 17,000 registered voters came in and the cost of each of those casting a ballot was $49.43. She further noted the cost of mailing out absentee ballots at 63-cents each.

The state largely does not reimburse any costs, except for Presidential Primary elections and locations that host elections such as schools and libraries.

Skolarus expressed they really don’t need to do early voting at this kind of cost and wished there was something they or township voters could do. She added it’s a terrible, unnecessary expense to spend more than $9,000 on early voting, and in her opinion, it’s “just not ethical”.

Other municipalities have also expressed concerns with the high cost of early voting.

Meanwhile, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson reported that at the close of the nine-day early voting period Sunday, a total of 73,531 voters had cast a ballot at an early voting site. The highest turnout day was said to be Friday, with 11,085 ballots cast.

Polling locations both locally and statewide are open from 7am to 8pm on this Election Day.