Absentee ballots a trickle on Nov. 8, compared to 2020's deluge

With COVID fears muted, most voters across Calhoun County opted to visit the polls to make their voices heard earlier this month.

The number of absentee ballots counted across the state on Nov. 8 has not been released yet, but exactly 17,531 absentee voters were counted across Calhoun County that election day, a far cry from the 33,232 absentee ballots processed for the 2020 presidential election, according to county records.

A similar scenario happened in the city of Battle Creek, where about 15% of all registered voters voted by absentee ballot, compared to about 30% absentee participation in 2020, City Clerk Victoria Houser said. Battle Creek had about 41,500 registered voters overall.

“Because of COVID,” Houser said to explain the drop, adding that lingering distrust regarding the results of the 2020 election and misconceptions that absentee ballots aren’t counted properly kept the absentee turnout relatively low this year.

“Oh, yeah, there is that idea unfortunately,” she said of those hesitant to cast their votes by absentee ballots.

The city’s permanent list for those who want absentee ballots has grown from about 3,500 to 6,000 since COVID-19 changed the world. Houser still predicts people will prefer visiting the polls on election day if the political landscape remains contentious.

For those who continue to doubt the counting of absentee ballots, she suggests they work an election themselves and learn more about the process.

In individual communities, absentee voters occasionally made up a good chunk of the overall vote, contributing to their communities' overall voter turnout, according to municipal clerks. For an idea of the range, Leroy Township's absentee participation was about 30% and Albion's was 58%, more than the in-person voters.

But absentee voter participation may never rebound to COVID levels.

Near Michigan’s capital city, Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum points to a combination of factors, including former President Donald Trump telling his supporters to vote at the polls in the conventional way, people becoming more comfortable being in public spaces and the newest generation of voters preferring to register to vote and cast their ballots on election day, something that voters legalized in 2018.

Compared to the August 2022 primary and the 2020 general election, the percentage of people who voted absentee declined significantly. About half of the roughly 119,800 Ingham County residents who voted went the absentee route, compared to 65%-plus in the two previous elections.

"This one didn't trend like I was expecting it to," Byrum said.

Absentee voting may have taken hold elsewhere.

Livingston County Clerk Elizabeth Hundley said 44% of the Nov. 8 ballots cast were absentee. Since a 2018 statewide proposal passed allowing people to vote absentee without a reason, the number of people voting absentee has increased in in the county.

In 2018, 31,341 voters voted absentee. This year, 47,923 voters voted absentee.

Nearly 60% of Michigan voters cast an absentee ballot in the last statewide general election, and absentee voting has continued to remain a popular option among voters since then.

Where things go from here is anyone's guess, Byrum and other election officials said. It's not clear whether the huge surge in absentee voting during the COVID-19 pandemic will prove to be an anomaly.

It's also unclear how the Nov. 8 passage of Proposal 2 last week will affect the landscape. The wide-ranging constitutional amendment is supposed to establish early voting, preempt Republican efforts to enact more stringent voter ID rules and expand access to absentee voting.

"With the passage of Proposal 2, we'll have nine days of early voting," Byrum said. "I'm excited about the future changes in election administration and improving access to the ballot box. I think it's important we respect every voter's decision on how they choose to exercise their right to vote."

Contact editor Susan Vela at svela@lsj.com or 248-873-7044. Follow her on Twitter @susanvela. Reporters Ken Palmer and Sophia Lada contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Absentee ballots a trickle on Nov. 8, compared to 2020's deluge