Michigan
Michigan’s vote certification process, explained
First-time voter sees political divide in Arabic community during
First-time voter in the 2024 election decided to not vote for a president, citing the war in the Middle East as the reason.
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.
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.
Michigan
What we know about the tornadoes that hit southeast Michigan overnight
Cleanup continued Wednesday after overnight storms spawned two EF-1 tornadoes in Southeast Michigan, toppling trees, damaging homes and businesses in Downriver communities, and leaving some neighborhoods without power for hours.
The National Weather Service confirmed one tornado tracked through the Ann Arbor area in Washtenaw County around 1:44 a.m. near Jackson Avenue and Interstate 94.
A second tornado touched down near the Allen Park and Lincoln Park border in Wayne County around 2:14 a.m.
In Garden City, strong winds snapped a large tree and brought down power lines, briefly sparking a small grass fire, resident Susan Steffke said.
“I got an alert to take cover, and I got up and split second, it was raining and thundering and lightning,” Steffke said.
Steffke said the fallen tree blocked a side street, and wires hung into her backyard.
“The tree totally was across the side street, and I had wires in my backyard, hanging down, and the telephone pole got split in half, and the top half was laying on the sidewalk,” Steffke said.
Neighbors nearby were without power for hours after the storm, said Garden City resident Julie Feinthel, who said electricity went out around 3 a.m. and returned just before 4:30 p.m.
“DTE was working around the clock to get it back up,” Feinthel said.
In Downriver, the Wayne County tornado crossed Dix Highway into Melvindale, the weather service said, snapping trees and causing damage that included roofs, windows, and HVAC equipment.
The storms also brought heavy rain and flooding, submerging flood-prone stretches of Gibraltar in southern Wayne County.
Bayview Drive in Gibraltar was closed as crews set up an additional pump to help drain standing water, officials said.
“Not much you can do, hopefully they pump it out or what have you, but it’s the first time the street’s been blocked,” said Gibraltar resident Gary Gagne.
No deaths or injuries were reported in connection with either tornado, according to the National Weather Service.
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Michigan
Thunderstorms rip across Michigan damaging 2 ice arenas, other structures
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Powerful storms ripped through parts of Michigan overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning, damaging two ice arenas and other structures, and uprooting trees near the University of Michigan’s main campus.
National Weather Service crews were surveying damage in places including Ann Arbor to determine if one or more tornadoes touched down, but none had been confirmed as of Wednesday morning. Instead, the damage appears to have been caused by a line of thunderstorms that moved into Michigan from Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois, meteorologist Sara Schultz said.
A 70 mph (112.6 kph) wind gust was reported at 1:49 a.m. Wednesday at the university’s football stadium, while gusts of 69 mph (111 kph) and 62 mph (99.7 kph) were reported at Willow Run Airport and Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Schultz said, and another round of strong storms with potentially damaging winds was moving into the area Wednesday from states to the West.
Streets and neighborhoods in many southeastern Michigan communities also were left flooded Wednesday.
Some public school buildings in Ann Arbor suffered structural damage and many lost power. “Safe passage for walkers and buses is compromised across much of the city due to downed power lines, flooding, water main breaks, gas leaks, and felled trees and debris,” the district said Wednesday on its Facebook page.
District schools and offices were closed Wednesday due to what officials say is a fiber outage impacting fire, phone and camera systems, and building access. It wasn’t immediately clear if the fiber outage is related to the storm.
Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor said structural engineers were assessing damage to a wall at the city’s Veterans Memorial Park Ice Arena. Part of the roof was torn from the university’s Yost Ice Arena.
A wall, torn off of the Veterans Memorial Ice Rink following a severe storm, is seen Wednesday, April 15, 2026, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Credit: AP/Mike Householder
Two blocks from where utility workers were dealing with the twisted pieces of metal littering the ground outside Yost, Seungjun Lee was feeling fortunate. A hulking tree outside the rented home he shares with six others barely missed his upstairs bedroom when the storm uprooted it.
“If the tree fell down a couple more feet, I would not be standing here,” said Lee, a 20-year-old junior at U-M. “I’d be in the hospital. So, I’m feeling very lucky that … the roof stopped it.”
Lee and his roommates were awakened by a siren, then an alert blasted from their phones between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., urging them to take shelter.
“As soon as I came out, everyone else was coming out of their rooms and everyone’s like, ‘What’s going on? This is crazy,’” said Lee, of Ridgewood, New Jersey. “And then we looked out the window: This tree just fell down. So, we’re like, ‘Oh, crap.’”
Storm damage is seen at the Argus Building in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Wednesday, April 15. 2026. Credit: AP/Jordyn Pair
A friend across the street then walked over to check in.
“He was like, ‘Did you hear about Yost?’ We went, ‘No.’ We were worried about our house. So, we walked over and we checked it out and we were like, ‘That’s crazy,’” said Sam Zaruba, a 20-year-old junior from Grand Rapids, Michigan.
As for classes on Wednesday, Zaruba said he’s not going. But roommate Gautam Nigam, a 21-year-old junior, also from Grand Rapids, has to.
“I have a final presentation later today,” he said.
The storms dumped as much as 2.5 inches (6.3 cms) of rain across parts of southeastern Michigan, bringing flood watches to a big chunk of the eastern Lower Peninsula, southeastern Michigan, northern Indiana and northwestern Ohio.
An evacuation notice was issued late Tuesday to low areas in northeastern Michigan’s Cheboygan County following a levee breach in the Little Black River watershed. The breach, in an area northwest of Cheboygan and west of Lake Huron, is not related to efforts to force flow from the Cheboygan Dam toward the lake as water continues rising following days of rainfall and winter snow melt, the county’s emergency management office said on its Facebook page.
Michigan
Over 40,000 without power after storms push through West Michigan
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Over 40,000 Consumers Energy customers are currently without power after strong storms pushed through West Michigan on Tuesday.
The outages, according to a map provided by Consumers Energy, are peppered from as far east as the Lake Michigan shoreline and over to Gratiot County.
This comes as storms producing strong winds, along with severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings, push through the area.
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News Channel 3 is tracking these storms and will provide updates.
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