• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. absentee voting>

Invitations prompt a surge in absentee ballots for Michigan primary

Our Staff
July 02, 2020
Michigan
filo/Getty Images

Michigan's primary is a month away but more than 1.3 million people have already asked for mail-in ballots, three-and-a-half times the number four years ago. A million Michiganders already have their ballots in hand.

The numbers were detailed Wednesday by the office of Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. They suggest her decision to send absentee ballot applications to all registered voters statewide will assure solid turnout in the nominating contests, no matter the intensity of the coronavirus pandemic in August.

That could increase the likelihood everyone in the state is invited to vote remotely again come November, producing even more significant participation in the presidential election — when Michigan's 16 electoral votes are central to the strategies of both candidates.


Benson announced in May that she would pay for county clerks to send mail-in request forms to all 7.7 million of the state's voters, hoping to minimize crowding at polling places in August because of Covid-19.

That prompted President Trump not only to lambaste her on Twitter but also to threaten to withhold federal funding to the state, something he's largely powerless to do by himself. The outburst was one of his first prominent tirades against voting-by-mail, which he maintains without any credible evidence will fuel election cheating.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

He also alleges without evidence the practice boosts the blue vote over the red vote, although it's true that Democrats believe an aggressive effort to persuade people in Detroit and other urban centers to vote by mail will assure Joe Biden defeats Trump, who carried the state by just 10,704 votes last time.

Absentee voting participation shot up in Michigan after the state's voters approved a ballot measure two years ago allowing absentee voting for no reason. A quarter of all votes were cast that way in 2018, in line with the national share.

Claim: Michigan illegally sent absentee ballots to voters. Fact check: False

Chiara Vercellone, Medill School

Michigan sends absentee ballot applications to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election. This… https://t.co/O2Y8dXRvmd
— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1589998381.0

Michigan did not send ballots to registered voters like President Trump said. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who has encouraged all voters to vote by mail for all elections held this year, announced Tuesday all 7.7 million registered voters would receive applications to vote by mail in the August primary and November general elections.

Responding to the president, Benson noted that her office was sending applications, not ballots, "just like my GOP colleagues in Iowa, Georgia, Nebraska and West Virginia." The applications sent out, Benson said, ensure "that no Michigander has to choose between their health and their right to vote."

In a similar tweet, Trump also accused the state of Nevada's election officials of sending mail-in ballots to voters. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, announced registered voters would start receiving mailed absentee ballots to vote for the primary, held predominantly by mail.

From Your Site Articles
  • Fact check: Mich. isn't illegally sending absentee ballots - The Fulcrum ›
  • Dems win changes in Michigan's handling of absentee votes - The ... ›
  • Michigan plans to send vote-by-mail applications to everyone - The ... ›
  • Michigan court keeps in place deadline for absentee ballots - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Trump's False Tweet About Michigan Absentee Ballot Applications ... ›
  • All Michigan voters to get absentee ballot applications in mail ›
  • Trump supporters burn Michigan absentee ballot applications ›
  • SOS - Absentee voting allows you to vote by mail ›
absentee voting

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
Ă—
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

Public opinion and U.S. policy on the Ukraine-Russia war

Steven Kull
Evan Charles Lewitus

An effective scorecard for political accountability

Bruce Bond
Erik Olsen

White Christian nationalism threatens US democracy

Steve Corbin

Who has been a special favorite of the laws?

Daniel O. Jamison

The future of corporate responsibility is company peer pressure

C.Anne Long

Building the next pro-life movement

Chika O. Okafor
latest News

Artificial Intelligence Series, Part 1: Productivity and Opportunity

Leland R. Beaumont
9h

Artificial Intelligence Series: A winding odyssey through the future of productivity

David L. Nevins
15h

Friendly fire: Interparty fighting ensues to find the next president

Steve Corbin
16h

Free speech: The cost of our words to truth and democracy

James-Christian B. Blockwood
16 August

Meet the Faces of Democracy: George Stern

Michael Beckel
Mia Minkin
16 August

Two kinds of centrists and the 2024 election

Dave Anderson
16 August
Videos

Video: GOP reacts to latest Trump indictment

Our Staff

Video: Does focusing too much on race increase racial conflict?

Our Staff

Video: From Salem to QAnon: The enduring presence of conspiracies in American politics

Our Staff

VP Harris will visit Florida to speak out against state's new Black History standards

Our Staff

Video: Affirmative action vs. race-neutral admissions, a case study

Our Staff

Video: White identity, is it rare or widespread among white Americans?

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Epic Times and Zombie Democracy

Debilyn Molineaux
David Riordan
09 August

Podcast: The Imperial Supremes and Rights for Whom?

Debilyn Molineaux
David Riordan
12 July

Podcast: Does the Senate still work? (with Marty Gold)

Kevin R. Kosar
Martin Gold
15 June

Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Kevin R. Kosar
Elise J. Bean
30 May
Recommended
Artificial Intelligence Series, Part 1: Productivity and Opportunity

Artificial Intelligence Series, Part 1: Productivity and Opportunity

Technology
Artificial Intelligence Series: A winding odyssey through the future of productivity

Artificial Intelligence Series: A winding odyssey through the future of productivity

Technology
Friendly fire: Interparty fighting ensues to find the next president

Friendly fire: Interparty fighting ensues to find the next president

Big Picture
Public opinion and U.S. policy on the Ukraine-Russia war

Public opinion and U.S. policy on the Ukraine-Russia war

Analysis
Free speech: The cost of our words to truth and democracy

Free speech: The cost of our words to truth and democracy

Analysis
Meet the Faces of Democracy: George Stern

Meet the Faces of Democracy: George Stern

State