Michigan SOS Estimates State Won’t Know Election Results Until ‘End Of Day On Wednesday’

Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said on Sunday that her state likely won’t know the results of the 2024 election until 24 hours after the polls close.

Benson told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that the timeline for this year’s election results will track closely with the 2020 election — when Michigan released the unofficial results at around 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in Michigan, a vital battleground state, remains a toss-up.

“We do have more options to process ballots sooner than Election Day, which is where we were restricted in 2020, so I’m optimistic we could see results even sooner,” Benson said. “But I would estimate end of the day on Wednesday as the best guess on how we’ll perform.”

“With that said, we will always prioritize accuracy and security over efficiency,” she added. “Understanding how much people will want those results, we’re still going to make sure the process is secure and accurate before we put anything out to the public.”

Michigan SOS @JocelynBenson says she estimates the battleground state will have the results of this year's presidential race by the end of the day on Wednesday — the day after Election Day.

"With that said, we will always prioritize accuracy and security over efficiency," she… pic.twitter.com/udCHTjDW6a

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 20, 2024

With 15 days until the election, Michigan has already seen more than 1 million votes cast through the mail, according to NBC News. Of those 1 million mail-in votes, 54% were sent in by registered Democrats compared to 36% by registered Republicans and 10% by voters not registered with either party.

Republicans have challenged some of Michigan’s election procedures, including suing Benson over the state’s inflated voter rolls. Around 8.4 million people are registered to vote in Michigan, but fewer than eight million voting-age people reside in the state, one of the largest imbalances in the country, Bridge Michigan reported last week.

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The Republican National Committee also sued the secretary of state over her guidance for absentee ballots last month. The RNC accuses Benson of instructing “local clerks and election inspectors to process and tabulate absent voter ballots where the stub is missing or the number on the stub does not match the number in the poll book or on the ballot return envelope as ‘challenged’ ballots rather than reject them as required by Michigan law.”

“Secretary Benson continues to expose Michigan’s elections to cheating and fraud, forcing Republicans to file suit again to protect the vote for Michiganders,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in September. “We will continue our efforts to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in Michigan – and around the country – through November 5.”