FILE: A voter enters their local polling place at the Douglass Branch of the Detroit Public Library in Detroit, to cast their vote for the 2020 primary election on Tuesday, March 10, 2020.Mike Mulholland | MLive.com

More than half a million Michiganders have already cast their ballots for Tuesday’s primary via absentee voting, but thousands more are expected to physically head to the polls on Aug. 2.

For people planning to vote in person, those still holding an absentee ballot or folks just planning to watch results come in Tuesday night, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has some things to keep in mind heading into election day.

Starting with the basics, people should check their voter registration status and their polling place on the state’s voter information website: Michigan.gov/vote. Contact information for local clerks is also there.

“The big things people should know,” Benson told MLive, are that unregistered people can register to vote at their clerk’s office up until when polls close at 8 p.m. on election day, and they can vote there as well.

“Really, truly no one should feel that they can’t participate in this election if they’re eligible to do so, even if they’re not registered,” Benson said.

Polls open at 7 a.m., and in-person voters can vote if they are in line by 8 p.m. Absentee ballots also must be received by your local clerk or in your local community’s drop box by 8 p.m.

Benson urged voters earlier this week that they turn in absentee ballots by hand this close to the election because the postal service may not get ballots to clerks in time. Track your absentee ballot at the link here.

7 a.m. is also when election workers begin to count absentee ballots, as Michigan law does not allow these votes to be tabulated until election day. As was a big storyline in 2020, this means election results do not come as quickly as in other states.

“Because turnout will be a little bit less than it was in November of 2020,” Benson said, “we anticipate that all votes will be counted sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday.”

Michiganders have only had the right to excuse-free absentee voting since the 2019 elections, so Tuesday’s election has seen the most absentee ballot requests ever for a midterm primary: nearly 1,250,000 a week before election day.

Benson said it is possible, as many communities may continue counting into Wednesday and beyond, that final results for the closest races may not come for a few days. Her office will provide regular public updates on Tuesday so people know when to expect results.

“But the bottom line is we prioritize accuracy and security over everything else,” she said. “And so even if it takes a little bit longer to get those results in, voters can know when those unofficial results are released that they are accurate and can be relied upon.”

Benson estimates that a third to half of voters will vote physically at the polls Tuesday, and she said her office is prepared for turnout that hovers around 2 million voters, given that the 2020 primary saw about 2.5 million voters.

The highest-profile race on the ballot is the five-candidate Republican governor primary. The last two governor year primaries, according to SoS data, saw 28.2% turnout in 2018 (2.2 million people) and 17.4% turnout in 2014 (1.3 million people).

Speaking of political parties, Michigan allows you to vote in either party’s contests, but you can only pick one. The ballot will have Democratic contests on one side and Republican contests on the other, and you can’t double dip.

Voting in the Republican governor primary and then the Democratic race for your local congressional district, for example, will get your ballot tossed out.

Tuesday is also the first major-year election since claims of widespread fraud began swirling around Michigan and other battleground states after November 2020.

Those claims of extensive cheating have never been substantiated, and Benson said citizens should “embrace the many ways in which they can find out the truth about our elections.”

That includes clerks around the state having public tests of voting machines in the days before an election to show people they will count votes accurately.

“We’re going to continue to just speak the truth and be led by data and running secure, efficient elections,” Benson said, “so that every eligible voter, no matter where they live, no matter if they’re Republican, Democrat or independent, no matter who they plan to vote for, can have faith in the results of the elections and that those results will stand.”

2022 Michigan voter guide by MLive, League of Women Voters

Governor’s race, congressional matchups: MLive political team previews Aug. 2 ballot

Michigan GOP governor candidates make closing arguments and attacks in final debate

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