Leelanau County will not have early in-person voting for the November election, though officials have plans to roll it out in a matter of months.

Michigan voters in November 2022 overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment that gives people the right to vote in person at early voting sites before statewide and federal elections. Communities may also choose to provide early voting for local elections.

Though several counties across the state are rolling out early voting for at least some precincts this November, Leelanau County Clerk Michelle Crocker – like her counterpart Bonnie Scheele in Grand Traverse County – decided to not jump into the fray this year. Both plan to have it in place for the presidential primary in February of 2024.

“How voting is going to look in November is not how it’s going to look in February. Early voting is going to make things much different,” Crocker tells The Ticker.

By law, early in-person voting will begin the second Saturday prior to election day and will end the Sunday before an election. Counties will handle early voting sites in a variety of ways, with consolidated locations expected to be the norm (meaning voters might have to travel to neighboring precincts if they’d like to vote early). Some larger precincts/municipalities will handle early voting all on their own, while others will coordinate with their county clerk's office.

“When you go from county to county, you’re going to see it all done a little differently,” Crocker says.

In Leelanau, the governmental center off E. Duck Lake Road (M-204) is likely to be the sole early voting site, Crocker says. Crocker has requested additional funds in her upcoming budget for an election coordinator to help handle the extra load that early voting is expected to put on clerk’s offices. Unlike absentee ballot voting, which also can be done early, early in-person voting is designed to replicate what voters are already used to when they head to the polls, save for the long lines and time crunch.

“Part of the purpose of early voting is to give the voter who shows up the same experience that they would receive if they were in the polling place on election day,” Crocker says.

Michigan voters in 2018 approved a measure that ensured that people can vote by absentee without having to provide a reason for which they could not vote in person, making the absentee process much more accessible. Early in-person voting will provide yet another layer of accessibility in a county already known for very strong voter turnout.

“We’re not a large county, but percentage wise, the registered voters in our county come out to vote. We generally are one of the top three in the state...we’ve seen townships with over 86 percent turnout,” Crocker says. “The voters are actively engaged in their community and they want to be involved with what’s going on, and they want to exercise that right to vote.”

How much early in-person voting is utilized in Leelanau County remains to be seen, though, particularly the first time it’s rolled out.

“I don’t think February will necessarily be a predictor of what August and November will bring,” Crocker said. “When you look at the demographics of our county, so many of them go away in the winter and choose to vote by absentee ballot, but we’ll be prepared regardless, whether zero people show up or 5,000 people show up.”

Editor’s Note: Read Monday’s Leelanau Ticker for a roundup of the county’s various ballot initiatives.