Michigan’s 2026 primary election is on Aug. 4. The list of candidates for statewide office has changed dramatically since the ballots were finalized and printed.
Three candidates for statewide office who are on the ballot have since ended their campaigns.
But what do you do if you’ve already cast an absentee ballot for one of them and want to change your vote?
For the answer to that and other voting questions, Michigan Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie spoke with Morning Edition host Doug Tribou.
Doug Tribou: For voters who receive their absentee ballots in the mail, those went out in late June. So, let’s take the example of Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Cox. He dropped out on July 17, so there’s a period of three-plus weeks when people could have been voting for him while he was still in the race. What can those voters do if they want to make a different choice in the Republican primary for governor?
Aghogho Edevbie: The biggest thing they can do is they can go to michigan.gov/vote to figure out who their local clerk is, reach out to that clerk, and submit a written request to spoil their absentee ballot. And that means that they can get a fresh ballot, even though they've already submitted their absentee ballot, and re-vote, and vote for a different candidate of their choosing.
DT: And for the record, the other Republican candidate for governor who dropped out, but is on the ballot, is Aric Nesbitt. And Democrat Mallory McMorrow is on the ballot, but has ended her campaign for U.S. Senate.
Can people who spoil their ballot request a different party ballot? So, if you voted Republican on the first ballot, can you vote Democrat when you get a new one?
AE: Unlike the presidential primary, our state primaries are one ballot. One side of the ballot is Republican, and the other side of the ballot is Democrat. So you just vote that one side of the ballot for the party that you want to participate in. Otherwise you'd mess it up.
Three candidates for statewide office ended their campaigns after ballots had already been approved and printed.
DT: If you are voting again, are you allowed to also change your choices in other races or on millages and ballot questions?
AE: You can change the whole entire thing. This is a secret ballot, so we have no way of knowing that you have decided to change your vote for governor, change your vote for Senate. It's really up to you. If you want to change your whole entire ballot, that is totally fine, but just make sure that you're only voting in one primary. Choose which primary you want to participate in, either the Democrat or Republican.
DT: How do clerks make sure that spoiled ballots are thrown out and that a person doesn’t have two sets of votes counted?
AE: We have something called the qualified voter file. It's called a QVF for short. And in that system, when a ballot is issued either absentee, early voting, or on Election Day, there is a number put into the QVF and into the poll book. When the ballot is spoiled, that other ballot number is voided. So there's no way for that ballot to come back into the system because we've already marked it off in the system as a invalid ballot.
DT: This is not the first time, of course, when a candidate has appeared on the ballot, but then ended their campaign for one reason or another. What happens with the votes that go to that candidate? Is it still possible — it would be very rare — but is it still possible for a candidate that's pulled out to win?
AE: As long as their name is on the ballot and people vote for them, they can still win. Now, of course, they could decide not to take office. And then there would be a number of different protocols that way. But people are free to vote for whoever they want who is on the ballot.
DT: While we have you, the mandatory early in-person voting period is about to start here in Michigan. That’s nine days before an election. What do voters need to know if they choose to vote that way this year?
AE: The early voting period for the primary starts this Saturday, July 25. It's still a relatively new option that we introduced in 2024. You can always go to our website to look up your early vote location. Just because you may typically vote at a certain location on Election Day, doesn't mean that that same location is going to be open for the early vote period.
Editor's note: Some quotes in this article have been lightly edited for length and clarity. You can play the full audio of this interview near the top of this page.
