It’s officially voting season, Michigan.
And the good news is that voting here no longer requires you to arrange your entire life around one random Tuesday in November.
Want to vote from your couch? You can.
Want to personally feed your ballot into a machine a week before Election Day? Also an option.
Want the classic Election Day experience? Michigan has you covered there too.
So welcome to Choose Your Own Voting Adventure: Michigan Edition.
OPTION ONE: The “Please Just Mail It to My House” Voter
Beginning Thursday, September 24, absentee ballots are available for Michigan’s November 3 election. Every registered Michigan voter has the right to vote absentee, no excuse required. How fortunate that this article goes out the same day that absentee ballots do. It’s like we planned that.
If you’re already on Michigan’s permanent absentee-ballot list, congratulations: your clerk automatically sends you a ballot for every election and yours is automatically being mailed out to you today.
Then comes the best part: voting from your kitchen table, where there are snacks and absolutely no line.
Fill it out. Sign the envelope. Mail it back, take it to your clerk, or put it in an official secure drop box like the one below.
And then?
Track that sucker. 👈 Just click there and track your ballot on Ballot Power!
You can check your ballot status online instead of spending the next three weeks wondering whether your envelope has disappeared into the electoral Bermuda Triangle. Democracy, but with package tracking.
OPTION TWO: The “I Want to Watch My Ballot Go Into the Machine” Voter
Maybe mailing a ballot makes you nervous.
Fine! Michigan has an option for you too.
Beginning Saturday, October 24, Michigan’s mandatory statewide early-voting period begins. It runs through Sunday, November 1, and some communities may offer even more early-voting days.
This is real, actual voting.
You go to your early-voting site, get your ballot, fill it out and personally put it into the tabulator. But wait, where do I go vote? Find out here: Michigan.gov/Vote.
Done.
Sticker acquired.
Civic duty completed.
You can now spend Election Day smugly watching everyone else remember at 6:47 p.m. that they still have to vote.
OPTION THREE: The Election Day Traditionalist
You enjoy tradition.
You enjoy seeing your neighbors.
Perhaps you enjoy fluorescent lighting in elementary-school gyms.
Your day is Tuesday, November 3.
Michigan polls are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. If you’re in line when the polls close, stay in line.
Before you go, check Michigan.gov/Vote.
That’s where you can confirm your registration, find your polling place, locate your early-voting site, view your sample ballot and get absentee-voting information.
Because nothing kills the Election Day vibe quite like confidently strolling into the wrong middle school.
WAIT — I’M NOT REGISTERED
Still fixable. Sorry friends, Michigan makes it really hard to NOT VOTE. Literally, you have no excuses.
The deadline to register online or by mail is October 19.
After that, Michigan allows eligible voters to register in person at their city or township clerk’s office through Election Day, with the required proof of residency.
So no, October 19 does not mean the door slams shut forever.
THE THREE DATES TO BURN INTO YOUR BRAIN
Here’s the entire article condensed into the part you screenshot and text to your family:
SEPTEMBER 24: Absentee ballots become available.
OCTOBER 24: Statewide early in-person voting begins.
NOVEMBER 3: Election Day.
That’s it. Send them this link too.. Help Me Vote
Michigan has made it possible to vote from your couch, at a drop box, at your clerk’s office, during early voting or the old-fashioned way on Election Day.
Pick whichever option works for your life.
Then check it off the list and enjoy the greatest feeling of election season:
Already voted.
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If you like to vote at your kitchen table AND like to visit the polls on election day, you can do both. If you got an absentee ballot, you can fill it out and then go feed it into the machine on election day. In fact, that is easier for poll workers to handle than if you don't bring your absentee ballot along when you vote the traditional way.
We go vote in person. We’re clearly, as evidenced by our dress and manner, aggressively progressive, we like to glare at anyone who smacks of magatry and loudly say things like, “tRump, what a fucking pedo, amirite?” Good times.