KEY DATES

KEY DATES FOR BALLOT PROCESSING AND POST-ELECTION PROCEDURES

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NOW - NOVEMBER 5: City and township clerks receive absentee ballots and verify each voter’s identity by comparing the signature on the envelope with the voter’s signature on file. If the signatures do not sufficiently match, or if the signature is missing, the clerk’s office must reject the ballot and contact the voter with instructions on how to cure the deficiency. (For the ballots of military and overseas voters, this process continues through November 12.) 

 

OCTOBER 28 - NOVEMBER 4: Cities and townships with a population of at least 5,000 may begin processing absentee ballots and feeding them into tabulators. Tabulators will not generate or release the results until after 8 p.m. on Election Day. 

 

NOVEMBER 4: All cities and townships may begin processing absentee ballots and feeding them into tabulators. Tabulators will not generate or release the results until after 8 p.m. on Election Day.

 

NOVEMBER 5: Election Day! Cities and townships continue processing and tabulating absentee ballots until all valid absentee ballots have been tabulated. Starting at 8 p.m., unofficial results can be generated and posted. 

 

NOVEMBER 7: All 83 Boards of County Canvassers must meet by this date to begin canvassing the returns of votes cast in all of the precincts in their county.

 

NOVEMBER 19: All 83 Boards of County Canvassers must complete their canvass and certify the election results in their county by this date.

 

NOVEMBER 20: County clerks must forward the county canvass results to the Secretary of State by this date.

 

NOVEMBER 25: Board of State Canvassers must meet by this date to begin canvassing the state election results.

 

NOVEMBER 25: Board of State Canvassers must complete the state canvass and certify the state election results by this date.  

 

DECEMBER 11: The Governor must issue a certificate of ascertainment that identifies the names of Michigan’s appointed electors of President and Vice President of the United States and the number of votes cast for each person and transmit it to the Archivist of the United States by this date. 

 

DECEMBER 17: Michigan’s electors of President and Vice President of the United States must convene on this date at 2 pm in the Senate chamber in Lansing to vote for the candidates for President and Vice President of the political party that nominated them.