Election results in Michigan: Roughly 400,000 ballots still being counted Wednesday morning

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson talks about Michigan election

 (Photo: Mandi Wright)

With roughly 91% of the vote in, President Donald Trump led Democratic nominee Joe Biden by roughly 24,248 votes early Wednesday morning, but there were still hundreds of thousands of ballots that needed to be counted before Michigan knows its final election results.

Those votes are largely absentee ballots, and are expected to help Biden over Trump. 

These numbers can change at any minute, as tallies continue to come in. 

The delayed results were expected and is a sign clerks are deliberate in their counting process, said Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. 

“Michigan update: Election officials worked through the night to #CountEveryVote. That work continues,” Benson tweeted at approximately 7 a.m. 

“Hundreds of thousands of ballots in our largest jurisdictions are still being counted, including Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint, Warren & Sterling Heights. Every vote will count.” 

Poll workers count absentee ballots for the city of Detroit at the TCF Center in downtown Detroit on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.

 (Photo: Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press)

Here’s a breakdown of some of the key counties with outstanding votes: 

Wayne:

Oakland:

Macomb:

Kent:

More: Michigan Election 2020 live updates: We may know today who won

More: Largest counties in Michigan still counting ballots as presidential outcome tightens

Benson expects more than 5.26 million Michigan residents cast a ballot in this election, by far the most in any election in state history. If that total is accurate, then as of early Wednesday morning there were still approximately 400,000 outstanding votes to tally. 

Third party candidates have received about 75,500 votes so far. 

More than 3.26 million of those votes came via absentee ballots. But Michigan election law does not allow clerks to start counting ballots until the morning of the election. The processing and security measures involved in the absentee ballot counting process means it takes longer to count these ballots than the in-person vote. 

Poll workers count absentee ballots for the city of Detroit at the TCF Center in downtown Detroit on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.

 (Photo: Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press)

The cities Benson listed in her tweet are generally Democratic strongholds, although Republicans have done well in Warren and Macomb County in the past. 

Benson expects to have most of the ballots counted at some point today. 

Contact Dave Boucher at dboucher@freepress.com or 313-938-4591. Follow him on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.

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