Michigan voters begin casting ballots for 2026 election
Michigan voters have begun casting ballots for the 2026 general election after absentee ballots became available late last week.
This year, the ballot includes races for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor and lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, the Michigan Senate and the Michigan House, along with various local and judicial offices.
There are also two statewide ballot proposals. Proposal 1 is an automatic constitutional convention question that asks voters whether Michigan should hold a constitutional convention.
Proposal 2 is a citizen-initiated ballot measure that would establish additional campaign finance restrictions on certain utilities, government contractors, and individuals or organizations connected to them.
The secretary of state’s office began making absentee ballots available to voters Sept. 24, while Michigan’s constitutionally-mandated early in-person voting period begins Oct. 24.
“Absentee ballots are out,” said Michigan’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. “Register now and make your voice heard by mail now through Nov. 3.”
With Election Day in just 36 days, Michigan is once again garnering national attention as one of the nation’s key battleground states.
This absentee and early voting push in the Great Lakes state also comes as The Heritage Foundation recently ranked it 30th nationally in a new report examining election integrity across all 50 states, as previously reported by The Center Square.
Voter identification was top-of-mind for Don Palmer, senior legal fellow for election integrity at Heritage, who spoke with The Center Square regarding the report and its results.
“Non-citizen voting is obviously something that’s happened across the country in almost every state, both red and blue,” Palmer said. “Take Michigan. There were a number of arrests there, and that’s obviously a system that doesn’t do a great job of trying to verify or identify non-citizens.”
Michigan scored relatively well in the three highest-rated categories: voter ID implementation, voter registration list accuracy and absentee ballot management. However, Palmer said the state could do more on citizenship verification, where Michigan received zero of 13 possible points.
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