Michigan primary election 2024 updates: US Senate race set; looking toward November
Polls opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday for Michigan's primary election, with rain greeting early voters across much of lower Michigan.
The election will determine which candidates are on Michigan's Nov. 5 ballot for an open U.S. Senate seat. It also impacts Michigan elections for the U.S. House, meaning it could help determine which party controls Congress next year. Candidates for the state House also are on the ballot Tuesday, as are those for many county offices around the state, as well as local ballot measures.
Polls closed at 8 p.m. local time in Michigan. Four western Upper Peninsula counties located in the Central time zone —Dickinson, Gogebic, Iron, and Menominee — close one hour later than in the rest of the state.
Rain and possible thunderstorms are forecast for many parts of the state throughout the day.
More: Find all 2024 Michigan primary election results here
Michigan's U.S. Senate race is set
The battle for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat came into clearer focus Tuesday night as U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, and former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, won their parties' nominations to succeed U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat who is stepping down after 24 years in the job.
The Associated Press, which the Free Press relies on for final results, called the races as the final polls in the state closed at 9 p.m., despite only a small amount of the total votes having been counted across Michigan.
Slotkin led Detroit actor Hill Harper 75%-25% in the Democratic primary, with just over 10% of the vote tallied statewide. Rogers led the Republican primary, with 70% to 12% for former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Cascade Charter Township, and 10% for west Michigan Dr. Sherry O'Donnell, with under 8% of the GOP vote in statewide. Grosse Pointe businessman Sandy Pensler, who dropped out of the race and endorsed Rogers two weeks ago but still appeared on the ballot, had about 8% of the vote.
Both Slotkin and Rogers had long been considered the frontrunners in the Democratic and Republican primaries for the Senate seat.
More of us vote absentee than in person
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said at least 1.2 million voters turned in absentee ballots — and that the total may grow by the time all of the ballots are in. She said 1.6 million voters requested absentee ballots.
Benson estimated that about 2 million Michiganders voted in the primary, meaning more people voted absentee than in person. She said that has been the case in every election since 2020 when, during the pandemic, nearly two-thirds of all votes were not cast in person.
"Lines were short — or non-existent — around the state," Benson said around 9:15 p.m., during a news conference at the Detroit Pistons Performance Center in Detroit's New Center area.
Since 2018, between 2.1 million and 2.5 million voters typically participate in Michigan's primary elections.
With the exception of military and overseas absentee voters, all absentee ballots must be received by local clerks or placed in drop boxes by 8 p.m. on Election Day or they will not be counted.
Eligible Michigan residents were able to register to vote on Election Day at their city or township clerk’s office with proof of residency. Benson said about 1,800 people registered and voted on Election Day, with most of them doing so in Ann Arbor and Detroit.
Will work (the polls) for golf clubs
The voter count hit triple figures just after 5 p.m. at Precinct 11 in Farmington Hills, where poll worker Dan Salk was earning a new golf club.
Salk, 68, has been hitting a 10-year-old driver grabbed from the discount bin at a defunct golf shop. His wife, long-time poll worker Beth Salk, gave him the go-ahead for a replacement — as long as he worked the election.
Truth is, he said, tearing the stubs from atop completed ballots and directing voters to the tabulating machine was an enjoyable way to spend the day.
The retired risk management director at Eastern Michigan University was sitting at a long white table with an open sleeve of Girl Scout cookies and a Detroit Free Press crossword puzzle.
“I’m sticking to the easy part,” he said, leaving his wife and another worker to deal with checking voters in.
Their job had been peaceful, Beth Salk said, despite a double-switch in the precinct’s whereabouts: the parking lot at the school where Precinct 11 voters usually go is being repaired, and the school scheduled to replace it had a minor fire two weeks ago.
The City of Farmington Hills sent a letter and a map in July alerting voters to the first change. With no time after the fire for a second mailing, a text message was supposed to advise voters to skip the replacement school and report to the Costick Activities Center instead.
Many voters, it turned out, did not receive the text. And moments later, the first upset customer of the day came through the door. It turned out that she hadn’t received any notice whatsoever.
“I’m really upset about this,” Jamila Steward, 47, said pointedly, but politely.
A passer-by had directed her to the correct location, she said, “but there were seven cars behind me. I don’t know if they’ll make it.”
Dan Salk sat ready to assist if they did, counting ballots and the strokes he might save with his new club.
Detroiters discuss doing their duty
Eastsiders Angela Gardner, LaToshia Price-Tyus and Rick Tunney, who voted at East English Village Preparatory Academy, take democracy seriously.
"I really love voting, and people have died for us to do that," Gardner, 57, said outside the eastside Detroit high school. "So I'm taking advantage of every time" to vote.
Gardner said voting brings people together, gives them a voice, a chance to make change.
"Don't complain about who's in office if you don't vote," she said.
Price-Tyus, 48, stopped to vote on her way home after working a 10-hour day. She said it was important to exercise her right to vote and "to get my opinion across."
Tunney came out to vote even though he didn't find much to vote for. As a self-professed diehard independent, he said he doesn't vote on the partisan matters like determining which candidate will be their party's nominee. That pretty much left him with three ballot proposals involving millage renewals and Wayne County's independent external auditor.
Once each party's nominee is set and appears on the ballot in the Nov. 5 general election, Tunney said he expects to vote for some of the candidates. Spoiler alert: It sounds like he's not a fan of Donald Trump.
"If Trump wins another election, the country will die before I do, the 56-year-old said.
Looking ahead to November
On the eve of Vice President Kamala Harris’ first visit to Michigan as a presidential candidate, some Detroit voters expressed enthusiasm for her last-minute bid for the White House.
Jeremy Rosenberg and Chella Bluth said they were talking about their excitement for Harris and her decision to pick Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on their way to vote at Northwestern High School with their newborn.
“I said for once I feel hopeful,” recalled Bluth. She said she recently showed her son an issue of Vogue she kept with Harris on the cover when she became vice president. “He was in my lap and I was like, ‘this could be our future,’” she said, adding it now looks “a little better and brighter.”
But not everyone in the Democratic stronghold is certain how they’ll vote. Alethea Smith, 55, said she was disappointed President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. She was planning to vote for him and now she isn’t sure she’ll vote for Harris. “I’m still trying to research. I mean she’s new. I mean if it was Biden, it would have been no problem,” she said.
Another Detroit voter has already made up his mind and won’t be voting for either of the major party’s candidates. Maurice Upthegrove-Bey, 52, said he plans to support independent presidential candidate Cornel West, calling him “down to earth” and a “humanitarian.” He said he takes issue with Harris’ actions as a prosecutor when she prosecuted marijuana-related crimes as California’s attorney general and San Francisco’s district attorney. “Now she want to come back to the table? Nuh-uh. I’m sorry,” he said.
Returning absentee ballots on Election Day
Don Rockefeller, 83, of Novi, and his wife vote absentee but he visited Novi City Hall on Election Day to drop off their ballots because it was too late to mail them.
Rockefeller said he voted for Elissa Slotkin in the Democratic race for U.S. Senate because she has more experience.
He said President Biden’s poor debate performance in June really hurt the Democrats and he was happy to see Harris become the nominee. He said he’d just read a little bit about her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and thought he appeared to be a well-rounded candidate.
He plans to vote for Harris in November and expects her to win a close race.
“There's a ton of people out there, and that amazes me as far as their intellect is concerned, that will vote for Trump,” he said. “And I cannot see anybody with any intelligence doing that.”
Rockefeller said that he thinks that Harris will make a good president, but said: “I guess if I had to characterize it, it’s mostly a vote against Trump.”
Trump supporters don't like Gov. Tim Walz
Constance Pemberton, 71, and her husband, George Bowie, 69, are both Republicans who voted for Mike Rogers in the U.S. Senate race, though they said the overall primary ballot didn’t excite them.
“I’m not passionate about any of the candidates, except maybe for president,” Pemberton said.
She said she plans to vote for Donald Trump in November.
“I love him. I’ve been with him since the beginning. I read his book in 1987,” she said.
Bowie agreed with his wife.
“I’m going to vote for Trump, primarily because of his business experience,” Bowie said. “I think Trump’s a strong leader. The Middle East is a huge concern and you know, in the Ukraine war has been going on way too long. I think we should have had a diplomatic solution to that a long time ago. He’s a deal maker.”
Neither had anything good to say about Harris or her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Pemberton called Walz “the one who let Minnesota burn down,” in reference to rioting after the 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Police investigating Crawford County incident
Law enforcement is investigating a possible incident of voter intimidation Tuesday in Crawford County, officials said.
A member of a state elections ground team conducting election check-ins around the state witnessed the incident in Beaver Creek Township in which people who were campaigning partly blocked an entrance to a polling location, said Angela Benander, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of State.
"They were approaching voters aggressively with signs as voters drove in," she said.
Campaigning within 100 feet of an entrance to a polling location is a criminal offense and the incident was reported to local law enforcement, she said.
Weather caused closures of several polling locations
It's not clear to what extent heavy rainfall and storms around the state affected turnout at the polls Tuesday, but Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said her office had received "some reports of weather-related polling location closures."
Polls were relocated due to power outages in Royal Oak, in Oakland County; Warren, in Macomb County; Three Rivers, in St. Joseph County; Grand Rapids, in Kent County; Clinton Township, in Macomb County; Brady Township, in Kalamazoo County; and the City of Portage, in Kalamazoo County, according to Benson's office. Details on the Warren and Royal Oak relocations, reported earlier, are specified below. Details were not immediately available on which precincts were relocated in the other municipalities.
Benson, speaking to reporters at a 1 p.m. briefing from Detroit, said in each case signs were posted and voters were advised of alternate locations and voting was not interrupted.
Benson noted that more than 1 million Michigan voters had already cast ballots before Tuesday through early voting and absentee voting.
That's "a good sign for our democracy," Benson said.
Grand Rapids voter says Harris brings greater energy
Grand Rapids voter Suzi Vos said she tries to vote in every election, so there wasn’t a particular issue or race drawing her to the polls. But she voted to support U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Grand Rapids, in her primary contest against west Michigan businessman Salim Al-Shatel.
“I think she’s really smart and willing to work with a variety of people,” Vos said, of Scholten. “She’s also committed to a lot of the same things I am.”
In more recent elections, Vos said she’s been supporting Democratic candidates. And while she thinks President Joe Biden “has done a great job,” she commended his July decision to withdraw from the race against former President Donald Trump, setting the stage for Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee this fall.
“I was really relieved to see him step aside,” Vos said. “I’ve been a little surprised about the energy that Vice President Harris has generated. It’s been exciting. I feel much more optimistic.”
Trump supporter always votes in person
Phillip Mansour, 60, went to the public library in West Bloomfield to cast his ballot Tuesday.
“I always vote in person,” he said. “I don’t vote absentee or mail-in ballots. That’s been my custom since I became an American citizen.”
Mansour said he plans to vote Republican in November.
“That’s been my party since I became an American, because of my beliefs,” Mansour said.
Mansour said he expects former president Donald Trump to win the election, but he thinks Vice President Kamala Harris poses a tougher challenge as the Democratic nominee than President Joe Biden did.
West Bloomfield man likes options for when to vote
Glenn Johnson, 69, of West Bloomfield, voted in person Tuesday morning and said he likes having options when it comes to voting.
“I actually meant to vote yesterday because I have Sundays and Mondays off, but I got busy,” he said.
He has a neighbor running for township trustee, which was his main reason for voting today, but he also voted for Hill Harper in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.
“I know him from TV, he’s a great actor and I like his image,” he said. “A lot of my friends and neighbors are in his camp.”
Johnson said he plans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, in November.
“She brings a lot of energy. I think she has a lot of experience,” he said. “She's a woman. She's Black, female and Asian, whatever. I just think she's a better candidate.”
Johnson said he didn’t know much about Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor who was announced Tuesday as Harris' running mate.
“I don’t know anything about him,” he said. “I know there was a lot of hype about the governor of Pennsylvania, but I don’t know anything about the guy from Minnesota.”
Continued problems in Plymouth Township
Officials with Michigan's Department of State said most voting was going smoothly around Michigan but they had received reports of continued concerns about possible voter intimidation in Plymouth Township Tuesday morning, after earlier complaints there during early voting.
The concerns related to electioneering and possible voter intimidation within 100 feet of an entrance to a polling place, said Angela Benander, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of State and the Bureau of Elections. The incidents related to early voting arose at Risen Christ Lutheran Church, the only township site for early voting.
On Aug. 1, state Elections Director Jonathan Brater wrote to Plymouth Township election candidates reminding them about state law restrictions on electioneering near polling places, Benander said.
However , "we heard a little bit this morning about continued activity," she said.
Police reports were filed during the early voting period and local officials are addressing the situation, she said.
"The Bureau of Elections is aware of multiple incidents of candidates and individuals displaying campaign materials crossing the 100-foot boundary at the Plymouth Township early voting site," Brater said in the Aug. 1 letter to candidates.
"The incidents have involved multiple people and have occurred on multiple days, and election workers have had to call law enforcement numerous times to address them."
Royal Oak relocates some polls due to power outage
Voters in two Royal Oak precincts will have their polling places relocated Tuesday due to a power outage, the city said on its website.
An outage at the Salter Center will result in voting for Precincts 2 and 3 being moved to the Royal Oak Farmers Market, located at 316 E. 11 Mile Road, the city said.
Power outage moves polling locations in Warren
The city of Warren has relocated polling places for eight precincts, due to a power outage at Butcher Community Education on Cosgrove Drive, according to the city website.
Precincts 31, 32, 33, and 36 have been moved to the Mott High School gym at 3131 12 Mile Road, the city said.
Precincts 34, 35, 40, and 41 have been moved to the Mott High School band room.
More: Michigan primary election 2024: Your last-minute guide to voting
More: Michigan primary election 2024 is Tuesday: Your guide to voting
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Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or [email protected]. Follow him on X, @paulegan4.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan primary election 2024: Updates from the polls
