With a week to go until Election Day, Washtenaw County is seeing robust absentee and early voting turnout.
The Michigan Department of State says 45,000 absentee ballots have already been returned in Washtenaw County. That’s over 11,000 more than in the 2022 midterm. Another 7,000 county residents also cast ballots this weekend in the first two days of early voting.
Rena Basch is Washtenaw County’s Director of Elections. She says midterms and other off-year elections usually see higher turnout here than in other communities.
“I know that, around the state, they feel like this is unusual turnout for a midterm, and I just see it as our regular excited turnout for any state and federal election.”
Basch says ballots mailed this close to Election Day risk arriving too late to be counted. She encourages those who have yet to turn in their absentee ballots to do so in person at a city or township clerk’s office or early voting site, rather than by mail.
“You would show your ID just like all the other voters, but then you already have your ballot ready to go. And so, you can just check in and then take it around to the tabulator and deposit your ballot yourself.”
Basch says Michigan’s new Permanent Mail Ballot List has likely boosted absentee voting this year. The list allows voters to sign up to automatically get a ballot by mail for every election. Over one-third of Washtenaw County voters are on the list.
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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