Amid ongoing uncertainties about coronavirus and with the Aug. 4 primary approaching, Michigan is seeing a surge in new voter registrations and requests for absentee ballots.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office provided data Wednesday showing that local clerks across Michigan have received a total of more than 1.3 million requests for absentee ballots.
The data shared with the Free Press also indicated more than a million absentee ballots have already been sent out.
That’s about 3½ times the number of applications received and ballots issued ahead of the August primary in the last presidential election cycle in 2016. …
Benson’s office also reported a surge in new voter registrations after seeing numbers drop off sharply during the height of the coronavirus outbreak in Michigan.
During April and May, there were just 12,887 new voter registrations across the state, far less than the 41,222 new registrations recorded in the same period in 2016.
But there were 35,278 new registrations in June, a significant gain on the 23,519 recorded in June 2016.