Michigan’s top election official touted a successful 2024 election and said tabulation is mostly complete, earlier than it was four years ago.

There are, however, about 6,000 outstanding military and overseas ballots that will be added to the unofficial results if they are postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 12, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Wednesday during a news conference in Detroit. Although there were no significant and widespread counting issues, there was a hold up in uploading data onto Wayne County’s website late into Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning. The Bureau of Elections is working with the county to understand what happened, she said.

“Certainly for close races that exist, the biggest and most significant … outstanding chunk of votes is coming from those overseas ballots and I’ll mention it’s not a guarantee that all 6,000 will return by Tuesday,” Benson said.

With 98% of estimated votes counted, Donald Trump won Michigan, according to the unofficial tally from the Associated Press. Trump received 50% of votes, compared with 48% for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Benson said it was too early for her to predict what it means that Trump is heading back to the White House.

“There’s going to be a lot of conversations in the days ahead about next steps and what comes next,” Benson said. “But I see Michigan voters at this point, they’re very engaged and enthusiastic, perhaps have different opinions about the type of leadership they want to see but we see women continuing to win elections here in the states. We also see the issue of economics … being top of mind.”

In 2020, President Joe Biden won Michigan with 51% of the votes. Trump received 48% of the votes in the battleground state four years ago.

More than 5.5 million Michiganders voted. Currently, turnout on Election Day 2024 was about the same as it was four years ago as the department waits for other ballots, including overseas tallies, Benson said.

“This is our third straight election cycle where voters turned out in record numbers, and that’s what we’re seeing as a victory,” Benson said.

Benson said 2.2 million voted from home, casting absentee ballots; 1.2 million voted early in person, and more than 2 million voted in person on Election Day. Nearly 22,000 people registered on Election Day, with many in East Lansing, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Detroit, she said.

This year, Michiganders were allowed to vote early for the general election. Benson said her department expected half of the 1.2 million who showed up to vote during the early voting period.

“It was just a convenient option that people all around the state embraced. And that, to me, for us as election administrators, is really the biggest success story of this election,” she said.

Benson also said her department is aware of non-credible bomb threats that targeted polling locations in Washtenaw, Wayne, Genesee and Saginaw counties, which the FBI tied to Russia.

A couple hiccups in Macomb County

Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini said Wednesday morning there was a holdup with absentee ballot votes in Shelby Township. Just before 11 a.m. Wednesday, the county’s website did update with 100% of precincts reporting.

According to the Secretary of State’s website, Shelby Township had 20,137 absentee ballots returned. The township was not on the state’s list of communities to preprocess absentee ballots.

“This is an example of why should you pre-tabulate, run through your problems,” Forlini said. “When you’re a community like Shelby Township, it makes sense, even if it’s one day before.”

The township also is where Clerk Stanley Grot is among a group of Michigan Republicans criminally charged for allegedly participating in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Grot was among those charged last year by the state’s attorney general for allegedly signing a phony certificate pledging the state’s Electoral College votes to Trump.

Last year, the director of Michigan’s Bureau of Elections notified Grot that he could no longer administer elections, including registering voters and issuing ballots. He also directed the township’s deputy clerk to perform election duties until further notice or until Grot is acquitted or has the charges against him dismissed. The case is still open, according to online district court records.

Grot easily won reelection as clerk Tuesday as he had no Democratic opponent in the township, which leans Republican. All of the GOP incumbents seeking reelection in the township − supervisor, clerk and treasurer as well as the four trustees − won, per unofficial results on the county clerk’s website.

Forlini said there also was an issue with a memory stick with data from early voting in New Baltimore and those ballots, about 2,400, had to be rerun.

Forlini gave a “hats off” to Warren Clerk Sonja Buffa for getting results to the county in a timely fashion.

Buffa did not preprocess Warren’s absentee ballots, of which there were 25,439, per the Secretary of State’s website. He said Buffa, herself, brought in sticks with data, most of them about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. He said she made three trips “and we appreciate that.”

“People are waiting on these results,” Forlini said. “People want to know what’s going on. It’s about everyone who is waiting on information.”

There was concern from Warren city officials and others about Buffa’s decision not to preprocess the absentee ballots and about how quickly city election results would get to the county on election night, possibly holding up local, state and national results.

Forlini said he personally picked up sticks from Chesterfield Township as part of a program provided by his office and the sheriff in which a sheriff’s deputy and county clerk’s employee will go to municipalities and pick up sticks with data — in a secure process − and get them to the county’s election department in Mount Clemens.

Forlini said it’s difficult to be compared to other counties that can modem in election results. He said his staff uploaded results as soon as clerks countywide were done with them and got them to the county, the third most populous in Michigan.

Michigan voters have cast their ballots. With Election Day over, the process of transforming unofficial election results into certified outcomes begins.

Here’s a look at the next phase of the elections process:

County boards of canvassers certify election results

In Michigan’s 83 counties, bipartisan boards of county canvassers, each made up of two Democrats and two Republicans, will review election materials, including poll books and vote totals, and meet to certify the results. At the conclusion of the canvass, they review the countywide vote totals and sign a certificate reporting the results. They have 14 days after the election to get the job done, making the deadline Nov. 19 this year.

But if unofficial results show a margin of victory less than 25,000 votes in the presidential election statewide, county boards of canvassers must expedite that schedule. The Michigan Secretary of State can direct county canvassing boards to certify the presidential election results by the seventh day after the election or sometime before the 14th day after the election.

If a county board fails to make its deadline, the Board of State Canvassers will take over and complete the county canvass. The county will bear the cost for completing the canvass.

Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers certifies statewide results

After the results of all 83 Michigan counties have been certified, the Board of State Canvassers, made up of two Democrats and two Republicans, will meet to certify the statewide results and the results of any races that cross county lines (for instance, a congressional or state legislative district that spans multiple counties).

The state board has 20 days until after the election to certify the results, which makes this year’s deadline Nov. 25. That date can be sooner, again at the secretary of state’s discretion, if the presidential election had a margin of victory less than 25,000 votes.

Presidential electors convene

The board of state canvassers’ certification — pending any recount requests — marks the end of the road for most election results. But not the presidential race. After the state board certifies Michigan’s statewide presidential results, the governor must issue a certificate with the names of the state’s presidential electors at least six days before the electors convene. The governor must transmit the certificate to each elector and the archivist of the United States. During party conventions, Michigan’s political parties choose their candidates for electors of president and vice president. These candidates have usually been involved as party activists for years.

More: Find all 2024 Michigan election results here

More: What is the Electoral College, how many electors does Michigan have?

Michigan’s presidential electors must convene at 2 p.m. in the Michigan Senate chamber on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December after the election. This year, that’s Dec. 17. On that day, they will formally cast their votes for president and vice president.

Congress certifies presidential election

On Jan. 6, Congress will meet to tally the Electoral College votes. The vice president serves as the presiding officer of that joint session. Each state is called in alphabetical order and lawmakers can raise objections to a state’s slate of electors, which require the support of one-fifth of the members in each chamber to be considered. For a state’s slate of electors not to count, both chambers of Congress would have to sustain an objection.

This final step in determining the winner of the presidential election received little attention until 2021, when supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol to stop Congress from certifying the results. It was a violent day that broke a long tradition of the peaceful transition of presidential power in the U.S.

Contact Clara Hendrickson: chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X, previously called Twitter, @clarajanehen.

Looking for more on Michigan’s elections this year? Check out our voter guide, subscribe to our elections newsletter and always feel free to share your thoughts in a letter to the editor.