Tuesday's midterm election has many Michigan voters feeling anxious

Anticipation ahead of a general election has largely given way to trepidation, and Tuesday's midterm vote in Michigan is no exception.

"There's anxiety on all sides," said Ken Kollman, a political science professor at the University of Michigan.

That's natural, he said, in the first national election following a 2020 presidential election in which the incumbent, Republican Donald Trump, refused to concede and has made endorsement of his unsupported claims of widespread fraud a litmus test for most GOP candidates in Michigan and across the country.

In addition to the violent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, there have been threats against poll workers and election officials, the arrest of an armed and threatening man outside the home of a U.S. Supreme Court justice, and an assault with a hammer on the spouse of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Many Democrats worry that if their candidate wins, Republicans will not accept the outcome, Kollman said. Many Republicans sincerely believe their candidates could lose due to ballot stuffing or other fraud, despite the fact those spreading such disinformation have provided no credible evidence and the fraud claims have been rejected by courts, audits, and in Michigan, the work of a Republican-controlled state Senate committee.

"There's also anxiety about, 'What if the other side wins?' " Kollman said.

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Republicans and Democrats both always want to win every election, but the angst is amplified during the current era of extreme polarization between the two major parties, he said.

"The average Republican voter watches what the Democratic Party does and gets upset and anxious, and vice versa," Kollman said. "When the parties have more moderates in positions of influence, the stakes are reduced. People have a great deal of anxiety and even anger toward the other side."

The Michigan election includes a ballot proposal to enshrine reproductive rights, including abortion, in the state constitution. Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, Michigan faces the prospect of falling under the jurisdiction of a 1931 state law that criminalizes most abortions, though a court ruling currently bars the law's enforcement in Michigan counties with abortion clinics. Proponents and opponents of Proposal 3 have portrayed Michigan's choice as one between a near-total abortion ban and legal abortion "up to the moment of birth," despite the fact the proposed constitutional amendment does not contain that language and allows for and anticipates regulation of abortion by the Legislature.

In addition to polarization, another factor is at play, Kollman said. The huge growth in absentee voting, spurred in large part but not exclusively by the COVID-19 pandemic, means votes take longer to count. And that, he said, "has given an opening for people who want to deny election outcomes."

When will the results of Tuesday's vote be known?

For many statewide races and some local races, probably not on election night.

The Secretary of State's Office expects unofficial results that reflect every ballot counted will be available within about 24 hours from when the polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday, meaning that for some races, that could be Wednesday afternoon or later.

The main reason is the uptick in absentee voting in what is expected to be a high-turnout midterm election. Ballots cast at the polls can be fed directly into tabulators, but clerks must remove absentee ballots from envelopes, check that the stub attached to the absentee ballot matches the number on the envelope, and remove the absentee ballot from the secrecy sleeve, all before tabulating.

Another reason is that most clerks no longer use modems to transmit unofficial results from polling locations to the county clerk's office, following security concerns that many experts say were without merit and guidance from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Instead, memory cards from polling locations are mostly collected and driven to clerk offices, which is more time-consuming.

Will both major parties accept the results?

That remains to be seen, but the Republican Party is on record as stepping up its efforts to lay the groundwork for possible legal challenges.

Josh Findlay, election integrity director for the Republican National Committee, said at a Michigan conference on Mackinac Island in the fall of 2021 that the GOP would massively increase its poll watching and election litigation efforts this year after failing to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election through a series of lawsuits and audits, the Free Press reported.

Findlay said one problem with GOP operations in 2020 was that attorneys for former President Donald Trump and other conservative groups went to court too late.

Findlay also acknowledged what many judges who ruled on the cases and many experts who testified had already observed: Many of those who challenged election processes did not understand election protocols. He called for greater advanced training for party challengers, and more involvement as election inspectors, trained election workers who are expected to carry out their duties in a nonpartisan fashion.

Michigan has already seen court action in advance of Tuesday's vote, including a lawsuit backed by Kristina Karamo, the GOP candidate for secretary of state, that singles out election procedures in the city of Detroit and seeks a court order that could result in the rejection of tens of thousands of absentee ballots cast by Detroit voters. An attorney for the city has denounced the suit as blatantly racist. Republicans also launched an unsuccessful court effort to force changes to state election rules for poll challengers.

What should I do if I witness or experience intimidation or harassment at the polls?

Voters in Michigan who experience any issues attempting to cast their ballots can call the nonpartisan Election Protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE- (866-687-8683).

Those who experience issues while attempting to vote can also file a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department at civilrights.justice.gov.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tuesday's midterm election has many Michigan voters feeling anxious