Michigan’s election results will likely not be finalized until after Election Day, the state’s top election official said on Oct. 20.
Voting has already begun in the swing state, which went for then-Republican nominee Donald Trump in 2016 and former Vice President Joe Biden in 2020.
“We do have more options to process ballots sooner than Election Day, which is where we were restricted in 2020. So, I’m optimistic we could see results even sooner,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said on CBS‘ “Face the Nation.” “But I would estimate end of the day on Wednesday as the best guess on how we’ll perform.”
Benson said officials in Michigan will be prioritizing accuracy and security over speed.
Michigan reported final unofficial results in 2020 at 8 p.m. the day after Election Day.
It was one of multiple states that were unable to finish processing ballots by the end of Election Day 2020, leading to Biden’s win not being confirmed until Nov. 7. The 2016 results were finalized the day after the election.
One million people, or 14.2 percent of what Michigan describes as the active voting population, have already cast ballots for 2024. Many have opted to return mail-in ballots, also known as absentee ballots. Some 2.2 million absentee ballots were sent to voters, according to Benson’s office.
The number of people registered to vote in Michigan is 8.4 million, even though the number of residents who are old enough to vote is just 7.9 million. Michigan officials say the discrepancy stems from a federal law that requires not removing people from voting rolls until they either do not respond to mailing notices or do not vote in two consecutive federal elections.
Republicans sued Benson earlier in the year, alleging Michigan officials have failed to properly maintain voter rolls and that the failure is disenfranchising voters. They pointed to federal law that requires states to regularly remove voters who died or moved, in addition to those who haven’t voted for a while.
The number of registered voters is “impossibly high,” Republicans said in their complaint. They said the only explanation is “substandard list maintenance.”
