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Michigan voter participation on track to break midterm election records

Heather Katsoulis
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https://flic.kr/p/5zi7YB

Absentee ballots for the upcoming midterm election are “vastly” higher than in Michigan’s 2014 midterms, according to officials with the Secretary of State.

Numbers from the Secretary of State show that a week before the election in 2014 roughly 350-thousand absentee ballots had been cast.

This year close to 590-thousand ballots have already been cast.

Fred Woodhams is with the Michigan Secretary of State.

“We’re very excited to see so much voter interest across the state. Absentee ballots are approaching numbers that we don’t normally see in a Midterm election.”

Woodhams said the numbers could even be record-breaking.

“We could very well see record turnout in this Midterm but I will add the caveat that that is for a midterm. It doesn’t appear that we’ll have as much turnout as in 2016 when nearly 5 million voters went to the polls in Michigan.”

The deadline for obtaining an absentee ballot is November 5th.