Washtenaw County election workers are preparing for heavy voter turnout as early voting begins this Saturday.
County Clerk Lawrence Kestenbaum oversees early voting in 23 of the county’s 27 jurisdictions. He says the record-high campaign spending in this year’s election has made the midterms hard to ignore.
“Hardly anyone is unaware that there's an election happening. And I think that that is also helping to boost turnout.”
Kestenbaum says some polling sites ran out of supplies during the general election in 2024, when early voting was first made available in Michigan. This year, he says Washtenaw County polling sites are prepared to handle similar levels of voter turnout.
Kestenbaum says he and his staff conduct exercises to prepare for any emergencies that might affect the election.
“Not just talking about disruption, but things like power outages or tornadoes, things like that that could happen and create issues with an election. And we've been doing that really for years. It's not a new thing.”
Kestenbaum emphasizes that the county’s elections are conducted on physical ballots, leaving a literal paper trail that can be checked for accuracy.
President Trump has falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him, prompting widespread dialogue about election security. Since then, Kestenbaum says new guidance from the state of Michigan has limited the number of election challengers allowed at polling places. Other than that, he says little about the election process has changed.
Kestenbaum encourages those who have absentee ballots to drop them off at an early voting site. That will help speed vote counting on Nov. 3, election night.
Early voting locations and other information is available at the county’s website.
This story is part of a series previewing major local races in the 2026 midterm elections. Click here for more of WEMU's local election coverage.
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