Michigan Midterm Election Turnout Strongest In 56 Years

LANSING — We knew the numbers would be great, but it's now clear that the turnout in Tuesday's midterm election was the strongest is has been in decades, preliminary numbers show.

With 93 percent of precincts reporting, more than 4 million of Michigan's 7.4 million registered voters had cast ballots in the governor's race, the Associated Press reported. Four percent of precincts were still untallied as of Wednesday morning, according to unofficial results. That is at least 52 percent of the voting-age population, however.

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Turnout is sure to exceed the 53.6 percent voter participation reached in 2006 — the recent high for a midterm election — and could rival or exceed the turnout rates of 55.8 percent and 57.1 percent, reached in 1982 and 1978 respectively, based on records from the Michigan Secretary of State's Office, the Detroit Free Press said.

The midterm record of 74.5 percent reached in 1962.

Percentage turnout in midterm elections in Michigan is typically in the 40s in recent years, with percentage participation in presidential-year elections in the 60s, the report said.

Turnout in the 2016 general election in Michigan was just under 65 percent.

The high turnout led to a strong night for Democrats, who were on track to win all three statewide offices for the first time in 32 years and flipped two Republican-held congressional seats, the Associated Press reported.

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