Michigan's youngest voters made biggest gains in midterm voter turnout

While the age-old trend of older voters turning out at the highest rate stayed true in Michigan's midterm election, it was the state's youngest voters who made the biggest gains in turnout as key contests for statewide offices, control of the state Legislature and the future of abortion access hung in the balance.

Young women — those 18 to 21 years old — followed by young men, recorded the largest gain in voter turnout in the November 2022 election compared with the previous midterm, the Free Press review of Bureau of Elections data found. It confirms earlier reports of high voter turnout among youth touted by politicians.

"They're fighting for their future," Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said of Michigan's young people during her recent State of the State address. "They're fighting for their future. Record turnout on campuses last November proved it.”

In general, age serves as a good predictor for determining whether someone will cast a ballot: Older residents are more likely to vote while younger residents are less likely to vote. Last November, that pattern held. But against that backdrop, the share of young voters who participated in the 2022 midterm saw a larger increase compared with any other age group:

• About 37% of young women, ages 18-21, voted in the 2022 midterm — up nearly 10 percentage points from 2018.

• Young men had the second-highest gain in voter turnout, up almost 6 percentage points to roughly 28% turnout.

• The turnout rate for women ages 60 and older increased by almost 5 percentage points to about 75% last year.

• For voters between the ages of 31 and 59, the turnout rate was relatively flat, regardless of gender.

Michigan women voted at higher rates than men across all age groups in the 2022 midterm, although the difference in turnout varied by age. The gender gap was the widest among younger voters and declined as voters got older.

The Free Press measured voter turnout by looking at the number of voters broken down by age and gender who cast a ballot in the last three midterm elections relative to their share of the population.

More: Michigan sets records in midterm voting. Turnout is another story.

It is difficult to determine whether youth turnout in Michigan secured historic victories for Democrats in the battleground state. Voters cast their ballots in secret, so there is no available data indicating how someone voted. Meanwhile, young voters on their own were not responsible for approving the abortion rights amendment — which passed by about 583,000, more votes than the number of young people who cast a ballot. But the wave of interest from young people in the 2022 midterm makes the last election stand out.

Precincts at Michigan's largest college campuses see highest turnout among young voters

Ann Arbor had a dozen precincts mostly clustered around the University of Michigan campus where at least 3 out of 4 registered voters ages 18-21 cast a ballot in last year's midterm. Nearby, on the west side of the city, Scio Township had a youth voter turnout rate of 79%. Census data with detailed age information by precinct is not available, so the Free Press analysis of turnout by precincts shows the share of registered voters who cast a ballot.

East Lansing, home to Michigan State University (MSU), had seven precincts where youth voter turnout exceeded 75%. Another precinct, just east of campus located in Meridian Township, had a turnout rate of roughly 77% among young voters.

The high-turnout precincts are indicative of the success of the get-out-the-vote efforts among the youth in the college towns, said Brady Baybeck, an associate professor of political science at Wayne State University. "For weeks, they had been told that they could register whenever, wherever, and they showed up on Election Day, waited and voted."

Youth voter turnout was also exceptionally high at a Westphalia Township precinct, located northwest of Lansing in Clinton County (76%), and a Berkley precinct in Oakland County (77%). Statewide, a handful of other precincts had exceptionally high youth voter turnout, but the number of young people registered to vote was 10 or fewer.

Long lines on college campuses filled with students looking to register on Election Day

Overall, 15,733 people registered and voted on Election Day in the 2022 midterm, according to state data. About a fifth of those who registered on Election Day lived in Ann Arbor or East Lansing. In East Lansing, one out of three voters between the ages of 18 and 21 took advantage of same-day registration to cast their ballot.

The result was long lines at voting centers on MSU's and U-M's campuses filled with students still waiting to cast their ballots long after polling locations elsewhere in the state closed. The last voter in Michigan's midterm election was a graduate student at U-M who cast his ballot at 2:05 a.m. at the Ann Arbor city clerk's satellite office at the university’s Museum of Art, after waiting in line for over 6 hours, according to the student newspaper.

The 2022 midterm was the first major election for which East Lansing had a satellite office on MSU's campus, according to Interim City Clerk Marie Wicks.

"We had students who were already registered on Election Day that were able to go in and vote there and then a separate line — the long line — to register to vote," said Wicks, who worked at the site on election night.

Registering and voting on Election Day involves verification steps that result in a longer process compared to those who registered earlier and show up at their polling place to cast their ballot, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson explained in a news briefing the morning after the election.

For security purposes, only a limited number of election workers have access to the state voter file to register someone on the spot, according to Benson. She said speeding up lines on college campuses can’t be solved by sending more people to help process same-day voter registrations but that election officials plan to look for ways to move lines more quickly in the future.

A major change to Michigan's elections on the horizon could help ease the wait for students in the future. In the 2022 midterm, voters adopted a constitutional amendment to establish at least nine days of early voting in statewide and federal elections.

With that change, "certainly we're going to try to encourage students to vote early," Wicks said. "Hopefully, they don't wait till the last minute."

Contact Kristi Tanner: ktanner@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @midatalove. Contact Clara Hendrickson at chendrickson@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan 2022 midterm election turnout: Young voters made gains