When we vote, our choices help shape the communities we live in and the future we believe is possible. Now, Michigan voters have more ways to vote than ever before and options like early voting mean that voting is more accessible. That is cause for celebration! Early voting is a great option for the student with a busy class schedule, the rural voter that lives far from a polling location, the working mom juggling a million things, or anyone that wants to feel the excitement of feeding their ballot through a tabulator, but has other plans on Election Day.
Recently, the Michigan Department of State released a report that highlighted Michigan’s record voter turnout in the November 2024 General Election. In fact, Michigan ranked third in the country in terms of turnout with 5.7 million people or 74.6 percent of eligible voters voting. And over 1.2 million voters took advantage of our newest voting option, early voting, when it came time to cast their ballots.
As pro-voter advocates, we are constantly working to modernize our elections to make them more secure and accessible for voters. When we reduce obstacles to voting, we see better representation at the ballot box. This ultimately means that we have lawmakers who more accurately reflect the values of our communities and who will fight for the issues that we care about. By creating more options for voters to register and cast their ballots, we are welcoming more people into the voting process and building a more inclusive democracy.
And the people of Michigan also support common-sense approaches to removing barriers to voting. After all, voters went to the ballot box in 2018 and again in 2022 to overwhelmingly support pro-voter initiatives including same-day voter registration, no reason absentee voting, the permanent mail ballot list, and early voting (among others). These initiatives, now enshrined in the Michigan Constitution, send a clear message from voters: we want options! It also moved Michigan from a bottom rank in terms of accessible elections to the top of the class.
But it’s never enough to just pass legislation or approve a ballot initiative. An equally important part of the work is in the implementation of the policy and ensuring that voters know about their new rights, and that takes time and commitment. Organizations like ours that worked to get Promote the Vote (Prop 3 of 2018) and Promote the Vote 2022 (Prop 2 of 2022) on the ballot spent the ensuing years working with the legislature to pass implementing legislation and partnering with dozens of organizations across the state as well as with local election officials to educate voters about their new rights.
The nonprofit, pro-voter advocacy community spent months educating voters, especially in the lead-up to the General Election in November. Over 50 organizations engaged in coordinated efforts to educate voters through early voting parties across the state, countless community events, door knocking, phone calls, and text messages, targeted digital ads as well as ads in movie theaters, newspapers (in multiple languages), and on buses and billboards across Metro Detroit. And it worked! Voters turned out in droves to early voting sites in November because it was a convenient option.
Of course provisions like early voting means more work for our local election officials, and we are grateful and require additional resources, but full participation in our democracy is priceless. We must work to let both our state and federal lawmakers know that our elections are a priority and that they must be adequately funded.
As we look ahead, there is still work to do in terms of improving access to the ballot box. Last year we worked to pass the Michigan Voting Rights Act which would improve language access for voting materials and improve access for voters with disabilities. Although we were not successful (yet!), the pro-voter advocacy community is organized, prepared, and motivated to see this legislation cross the finish line and to continue to secure our spot as a national leader for in accessible elections.
Sommer Foster, Executive Director – Michigan Voices
Micheal Davis, Jr., Executive Director – Promote the Vote
Christy McGillivray, Executive Director – Voters Not Politicians
This commentary was originally published by Michigan Advance. Read more here: https://michiganadvance.com/2025/07/31/bettering-the-ballot-box-michiganders-vote-in-record-numbers-and-utilize-early-voting/