GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — It is official, and polls have opened for Election Day in West Michigan.
Before you fill out your ballot, there's important information you need to know.
Voters will head to the polls to vote in the midterm election all throughout Tuesday.
ELECTION DAY: Precincts are preparing for those voters to come out to cast their ballots today.
— Lauren Kummer (@LaurenKummerTV) November 8, 2022
Polls open this morning at 7AM and close this evening at 8PM. We’re *LIVE* on @FOX17 with details you need to know if you’re planning to come out to vote. pic.twitter.com/58oyJ98aOz
With races to decide executive seats such as governor and attorney general, proposals for term limits, abortion and voting rights on the ballot, along with all of Michigan's congressional seats being up for grabs in newly drawn districts, the stakes are high in the 2022 election.
This year, Michigan residents will vote to elect the state’s governor, attorney general, secretary of state, U.S. House representatives, state House representatives, state senators, local officials, and decide three statewide ballot measures, school bond and millage requests, and local proposals.
VOTING INFORMATION
Polls:
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 8. You can look up your polling location on the Michigan Secretary of State's website.
“Bring patience," said Grand Rapids City Clerk Joel Hondorp. "That would be helpful, and then also, they're going to be asked for a photo ID. If they don't have a photo ID, they’ll fill out an affidavit on the back of the application stating that the stuff that they wrote on the front page of the application is correct and true," he said.
Registering to vote:
If you aren’t registered to vote, it’s not too late. The deadline to register to vote and to be able to vote in upcoming elections is 15 days before the election if you are registering to vote online or by mail, but you can register to vote in person at your city or township clerk's office up until 8 p.m. on Election Day. You’ll need proof of residency and you’ll be able to vote while you are there.
Absentee ballots:
Absentee ballots can no longer be requested or turned in by mail. If you still have an absentee ballot, you must drop it off in person at your clerk’s office or at your jurisdiction’s drop box until 8 p.m. on Election Day. You can also look up what's on your ballot on the Michigan Voter Information Center.
Election Security:
A lot of people are talking about election security and voter intimidation for this year's election.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Monday it's expanding its poll monitoring. They plan to have personnel from the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office to ensure voter rights are not violated.
In Michigan, officials will be on site in Grand Rapids, as well as in Detroit, Flint, Southfield and Pontiac.
The justice department routinely monitors polling locations in every election, and that is nothing new.
They're there to enforce voter intimidation laws, and monitor and take complaints about things like the Americans with Disabilities Act compliance.
Nationally, the DOJ is covering 20 more jurisdictions in 2022 than they did in 2020, in 24 states.
"We do a preliminary accuracy test to make sure that the ballot you're casting will be tabulated exactly how you mark your ovals on your ballot. Then for absentee ballots, we keep them in a secure locked room until we get them preprocessed, and then also when we take those results from the tabulator, they go in a sealed bag that's brought back to the receiving board, and then we take those and securely transport transport them virtually to the county," said Hondorp.
In Kalamazoo, the Chief Deputy Clerk Elizabeth Byrd said the process after the polls close takes a little bit of time to garnish results.
"Polls close at 8," said Kalamazoo County Chief Deputy Clerk Elizabeth Byrd. "At that time we start to tabulate results. As we start to receive those results in our office, we update our website in real time, so anyone in Kalamazoo County, or Michigan, or anywhere can go on our website, and they can see our election results in real time as we're receiving them. You can also see people who voted in person versus people who voted absentee. Obviously the absentee votes will take a little longer to tabulate because you have to remove them from the envelopes, but we're very excited to share those results in real time and make Kalamazoo County more transparent than they've ever been," she said.
If you have any election concerns, you can call the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan at (616) 808-2140.
Polls close at 8 p.m. on Nov. 8. For more information on what is on the ballot or where your polling precinct is located, click here.
