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Early voting starts soon: When and where to vote around Grand Rapids

Michigan's nine-day early voting period for the November 2024 general election starts on Saturday, Oct. 26. (MLive File Photo)
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GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Starting this weekend, Michigan voters who want to avoid long lines on Election Day can cast their ballots early and in-person at designated early voting sites.

Michigan’s early voting period will kick off on Saturday, Oct. 26, allowing voters to head to the polls early and vote in-person for the nine days leading up to the Tuesday, Nov. 5, general election.

State law requires local clerks to offer nine days of early in-person voting, after voters passed Proposal 2 in 2022. Early voting operates the same as regular Election Day voting procedures, where voters walk in to their designated polling site, receive a ballot, cast their votes and put the ballot in a tabulator.

Early voting will run every day until Election Day, including on weekends, from Saturday, Oct. 26, to Monday, Nov. 4.

Below are the times and locations where voters in the greater Grand Rapids area can participate in early voting.

Kent County:

In Kent County, voters must use the designated early voting site in their jurisdiction to vote early. So, for example, a voter in Cascade Township can’t cast a ballot at Ada Township’s early voting site – they must go to Cascade’s designated early voting location.

However, voters in the city of Grand Rapids can vote at any of the city’s four early voting locations.

RELATED: DeVos Place to become early voting site ahead of November presidential election

The times of operation for each early voting site vary by jurisdiction, so be sure to double check the times for your location below.

Here are the early voting location for all 30 cities and townships across Kent County:

In the Aug. 6 primary election, just over 5,000 people voted through the early voting option in Kent County, compared to the 51,891 voters who showed up to their local precincts on Election Day to vote in-person.

Absentee ballot was the most popular voting method in Kent County in the Aug. 6 election, with 77,802 people voting through absentee ballots, making up 61% of all votes cast in the August primary.

RELATED: Absentee voting continues to surpass Election Day voting in Kent County’s Aug. 6 primary

More information on where to find absentee ballot drop boxes in Kent County can be found on the clerk’s website, linked here.

The deadline to apply to receive an absent voter ballot by mail in Kent County is 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 25. After that, residents can receive an absentee voter ballot in-person at their local clerk’s office.

Ottawa County:

Ottawa County voters can vote at any of the county’s four early vote centers, according to the clerk’s office. All four locations will be open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day, except for Tuesday, Oct. 29 and Thursday, Oct. 31, when they will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Here are the locations for early voting:

The Ottawa County Clerk’s Office is offering an interactive map on its website where you can see wait times for each early voting location before you go.

Early voter turnout has been pretty low across the state since it first debuted this year. In this year’s August primary election, 2,862 people participated in early voting in Ottawa County, out of a total of 83,143 ballots cast, according to the clerk’s office.

Muskegon County voters can find MLive’s coverage of where to vote early here.

RELATED: See where you can vote early in Muskegon County

Michigan recently unveiled a new voter dashboard where the public can now see how many ballots have been cast statewide in the days ahead of the presidential election.

The dashboard is updated once daily and shows how many people have voted via absentee ballot and early in-person voting, at Michigan.gov/votingdashboard.

RELATED: Michigan’s new election dashboard shows early voting data by county and city

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5, and polls will be open statewide from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

More Grand Rapids election news:

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