Michigan Elections FAQ: Do early mail-in ballots count if a voter dies?

Early evaluation of postal votes

The same principle applies to mail-in ballots: Once they are entered into a tabulator, the state considers them cast and will also be counted for voters who die before Election Day.

Michigan lawmakers last year passed new rules giving local clerks more time to process mail-in ballots before Election Day, a move intended to speed up counting.

Cities or towns with more than 5,000 residents have the option to begin processing and tabulating mail-in ballots up to eight days before the election. Smaller jurisdictions receive a single day.

If a mail-in ballot is recorded during this early processing window, it will count even if the voter later dies before Election Day.

As of early October, more than 300 of the state's 1,521 jurisdictions had notified the state that they planned to tally mail-in ballots before the Nov. 5 election.

Do other federal states do it differently?

States differ on whether they count early ballots cast by voters who die before Election Day.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 10 states explicitly allow mail-in ballots cast before a voter's death to be counted, but nine other states strictly prohibit it.