Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson held a pre-election news conference Monday.

Benson announced that more than 3.2 million Michigan citizens have already cast their ballot in the General Election. More than 1.2 million voters cast their ballot during early voting period. Michigan's total turnout for the 2020 election was approximately 5.6 million total voters, 3.3 million of whom voted by mail.

Benson said the state’s first-ever early-voting period during a presidential election was extremely successful and broke several records. She added that all trends indicate the state is on pace to see another high-turnout election.

With early-voting, Benson said of the state’s most populous counties, Washtenaw County led turnout so far with 54% of the active registered voters who cast a ballot - ten points above the state average. That was followed by Oakland and Kent Counties that were also above the statewide turnout rate/average.

Benson also touched on election security, assuring safe and secure results and that people can be confident results will be counted accurately. She stressed that Michigan is also prepared for any civil unrest or disturbance on Election Day – adding "It is now a crime in Michigan to threaten an election official in their line of work".

Benson said throughout the pre-processing procedures observed across the state, there have been a number of challengers and observers peacefully observing and “staying within the guardrails of their roles to have access to see the process and have transparency”. She added it’s gone “abundantly smoothly” and hopes no one tries to disrupt the process.

Benson further thanked clerks and election workers for their tireless work, saying they’ve done an “exceptional job” managing the early voting sites, setting up counting boards, pre-processing mail-in ballots, and overall making sure the voting process runs smoothly and securely.

Polls are open from 7am to 8pm on Election Day.

A link to the press conference is provided.