LANSING, Mich. — Thanks to new voting laws in Michigan, residents had the opportunity to register to vote on the same day as the presidential primary on Tuesday, March 10.
"Today was a new day for democracy in Michigan. It was our first major election since voters amended our state constitution in 2018," said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
More than 13,000 people registered to vote at their clerks on Election Day, and almost half of those showed up after 4:30 p.m., said Benson.
"We expect that many of these people were young, first-time voters," Benson said.
In addition to allowing same day registration, Michigan also let voters request an absentee ballot for no reason. Because of that, nearly 1 million absentee ballots were submitted in the primary, Benson said. This was nearly twice as many ballots as were cast in the 2016 presidential primary.
"While the expansion of our democracy was historic, it also brings with it challenges for the more than 1,500 election clerks across our state," Benson said.
Absentee ballots were not able to be counted until Tuesday, and Benson said clerks were still registering people to vote at 9 p.m.
"For this reason, we do not expect to see a full picture of our election until tomorrow afternoon," Benson said, but overall the election operations across the state ran "smoothly and efficiently."
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Benson said she hopes Michigan lawmakers can amend the legislation so that clerks can start processing absentee ballots sooner. She also she wants employers across the state to give their workers the day off so they can volunteer to serve as poll workers.
The Associated Press projects that Joe Biden won the Michigan Democratic presidential primary and Donald Trump won the Republican presidential primary.
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