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Voter turnout shatters recent records for Michigan primary elections

Experts expected that this year's Michigan primary election turnout would be more than typical. Turns out, they were right.
Credit: Romain Blanquart Detroit Free Press
Votes are recounted at the Oakland County Intermediate School District in Waterford on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016.

LANSING — Voter turnout in Tuesday's primary election in Michigan shattered records going back at least as far as 1978, a state election official confirmed early Wednesday.

More than 2 million votes were cast, and based on still incomplete and unofficial election returns, it appears voter turnout exceeded 27 percent.

Those numbers likely help account for precincts running out of ballots Tuesday at polling places in Oakland County and elsewhere.

Based on data from the Michigan Secretary of State's Office, the most people to vote in any Michigan primary — midterm or presidential — since 1978, was the 1,722,869 people who voted in the 2002 gubernatorial primary. State officials pegged the turnout that year at 23.3 percent, based on 6.8 million registered voters.

The turnout percentage was slightly higher — 24.4 percent — in 2002, when there were fewer than 6.6 million registered voters.

This year, election officials pegged voter registration at 7,385,079. With more than 2,023,069 people voting, that would equate to a voter turnout of greater than 27 percent.

"It's great to see so many Michigan residents vote in the primary, which are too often the forgotten elections," said Fred Woodhams, a spokesman for Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson.

"Contested primaries up and down the ticket and among the parties captured the attention of voters."

The results show Democratic voters, in particular, are more energized than they were the last time Michigan had a gubernatorial election with contested nominations in both parties.

With 96 percent of precincts reporting, just over 2 million votes had been cast for governor, shattering recent turnout results for a midterm primary election.

Democratic candidates for governor had received close to 1.1 million votes, while Republican candidates for governor had received 943,000 votes.

In the 2010 primary, the most recent comparable election, fewer than 1.7 million people voted, with just over 1 million votes cast for Republican candidates for governor and 529,000 votes cast for Democratic candidates. Turnout that year was pegged at 21.9 percent, based on a voter registration of 7.2 million.

Republican pollster Steve Mitchell attributed the strong turnout to "an enormous interest in politics," and many competitive statewide races with huge amounts spent on TV advertising.

The 2010 primary is not entirely comparable to the 2018 primary, because while there was considerable money spent on the Republican side of the gubernatorial ballot that year, there wasn't much advertising in the Democratic race between former House Speaker Andy Dillon and then-Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, the eventual nominee, he said. There also was not a U..S. Senate primary that year, he added.

It remains to be seen how the results will translate to the general election on Nov. 6, Mitchell said.

"There is no doubt Democrats are as energized and as enthusiastic as I have seen them," he said. "That's because of the strong anti-Trump dislike in the Democratic Party."

He said "the question is, will Republicans vote in equal numbers in the general election?"

In Oakland County on Tuesday, about 181,000 ballots were cast for Democratic candidates for governor and about 131,000 for Republican candidates for governor, according to unofficial results on the county clerk's website.

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

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