MICHIGAN 16 Electoral Votes 
link to clickable map
Population 
(Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Michigan Bureau of Elections)
Total Resident Population, July 1, 2016 est.              9,928,300
Total Registration, Oct. 2016                                          6,748,385
Michigan has: 83 counties.
Largest counties: Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Kent, Genessee. 
Largest cities: Detroit, Grand Rapids, Warren, Sterling Heights. 

Government
Governor: Rick Snyder (R) elected 2010, re-elected 2014.
State Legislature: Michigan State Legislature   House: 110 seats   Senate: 38 seats
Local: Counties and Cities   NACO
U.S. House: 9R, 5D - 1. D.Benishek (R) | 2. B.Huizenga (R) | 3. J.Amash (R) | 4. J.Moolenaar (R) | 5. D.Kildee (D) | 6. F.Upton (R) | 7. T.Walberg (R) | 8. M.Bishop (R) | 9. G.Peters (D) | 9. S.Levin (D) | 10. C.Miller (R) | 11. D.Trott (R) | 12. D.Dingell (D) | 13. J.Conyers (D) | 15. B.Lawrence (D).  >
U.S. Senate: Gary Peters (D) elected in 2014, Debbie Stabenow (D) re-elected in 2012. 
2016
U.S. House: Two seats were open due to retirements; neither changed parties and the balance remained at 9R, 5D. 
- In CD1 (Upper Peninsula), Jack Bergman (R) defeated Lon Johnson (D) by 54.90% to 40.06%, 3.72% for Diane Bostow (L) and 1.33% for Ellis Boal (G), to succeed Rep. Dan Benishek (R).
- In CD10 (the Thumb), Paul Mitchell (R), defeated Frank Accavitti Jr. (D), by 63.09% to 32.29%, 3.11% for Lisa Lane Giola (L) and 1.50% for Benjamin Nofs (G), a self-described "Berniecrat Revolutionary," to succeed Rep. Candice Miller (R).

State Legislature: All 110 House seats were up; Senate elections are held every four years.  The House went from 62R, 45D, 3v to 63R, 47D.  The balance in the Senate was 27R, 11D.
Ballot Measures: None qualified.  A marijuana legalization initiative requiring 252,523 petition signatures fell short due to many signatures that were gathered outside a 180-day time limitation. >

 State of Michigan
Bureau of Elections

Green Party of MI
Libertarian Party of MI
MI Democratic Party
MI Republican State Comm.
Constitution Party of MI (USTP)

Detroit News
Detroit Free Press
MLive-Politics
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TV
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Politics1-MI
Ballotpedia-MI
 


The Great Lakes State
General Election -- Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Voting Eligible Population*: 7.423,233.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 64.7%.


Voter Registration Deadline: Oct. 11, 2016.



Official Results >


+Trump/Pence (Rep.)
2,279,543
(47.50)
Clinton/Kaine (Dem.)
2,268,839
(47.27)
Johnson/Weld (Lib.)
172,136
(3.59)
Castle/Bradley (USTP)
16,139
(0.34)
Stein/Baraka (Grn.)
51,463
(1.07)
Soltysik/Walker (NLP)
2,209
(0.05)
McMullin (w/in)
8,177
(0.17)
other w/ins (6)
778

Total........4,799,284




Total voters: 4,874,619
Overview: Although the Republican ticket had not carried the Michigan since Bush/Quayle did in 1988, the Trump campaign saw an opening.  In the final week the campaign flooded the state with visits by the principals and surrogates.
Michigan proved to be a critical state for  the Republican ticket, which eked out a victory with a plurality of 10,704 votes out of 4.8 million cast The margin of 0.23 percentage points was the closest of any state.  Trump/Pence carried 75 counties to just eight for Clinton/Kaine.
   Looking at the Detroit area, Clinton's plurality in Wayne County was 290,451 votes, substantially off from
the 382,032 cushion Obama amassed in 2012. 
   On Nov. 30 Green Party nominee Jill Stein submitted a petition for recount.  The recount was begun, but ended on Dec. 7 due to a court order. (1, 2)
   There were a lot of problems with voting in Detroit; a subsequent audit by the Michigan Bureau of Elections found "human error, not illegal activity, resulted in mismatches between the number of ballots and recorded voters."  Further the Bureau reported "no evidence of pervasive voter fraud or that widespread voting equipment failure led to the imbalances (+)."
General Election Visits
Clinton  |  Trump

BALLOT [PDF]

See also:
Edward-Isaac Dovere.  "How Clinton lost Michigan--and blew the election."  Politico, Dec. 14, 2016.

[State Primary: August 2, 2016]
Presidential Primary -- Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Democrats
147 Delegates: 85 District, 28 At-Large, 17 PLEO and 17 Unpledged.

details


 

Republicans
59 Delegates: (3 RNC, 11 At-Large, 45 by CD (3 x 15 CD).

details


General Election Winners in Michigan, 1992-2012
1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012
Clinton
43.77%
Clinton
51.69%
Gore
51.28%
Kerry
51.23%
Obama
57.43%
Obama
54.21%
  and the details...
 
General Election -- Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Voting Eligible Population*: 7,317,247.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 64.7%.


Voter Registration Deadline: October 9, 2012.



Official Results >


Romney/Ryan (Rep.) 2,115,256 (44.71)
+Obama/Biden (Dem.)
2,564,569 (54.21)
Goode/Clymer (UST)
16,119 (0.34)
Stein/Honkala (Grn.)
21,897
(0.46)
Anderson/Rodriguez (NLP)
5,147
(0.11)
Alexander (w/in)
89
-
Hoefling (w/in)
42
-
Johnson (w/in)
7,774
(0.16)
White (w/in)
68
-
Total........4,730,961


total votes: 4,780,701
2012 Overview
Although the Republican ticket had not carried Michigan since Bush/Quayle defeated Dukakis/Bentsen in 1988, there were suggestions that Mitt Romney's ties to the state could put it in play.  That scenario was not to be.  The Obama/Biden ticket won Michigan with a plurality of 449,313 votes (9.50 percentage points), carrying 20 counties to 63 for Romney/Ryan.  The three Detroit area counties (Wayne, Oakland and Macomb) produced 39.6% of the total votes in the presidential race (1,871,518 votes).  Macomb (51.48% to 47.49%) and Oakland (53.56% to 45.20%) were relatively close, but in Wayne County Obama racked up a plurality of 382,032 votes (73.03% to 26.21%).  Statewide 270,805 fewer votes were tallied in the presidential contest than in 2008 (a 5.4% decrease).
General Election Details
Obama  |  Romney
BALLOT [PDF]

General Election -- Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Voting Eligible Population*: 7,263,250.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 68.9%.


Total Registration: 7,470,764.


Official Results >
+

McCain-Palin (Rep.)
2,048,639
(40.96)
+Obama-Biden (Dem.)
2,872,579
(57.43)
McKinney (Grn.)
8,892
(0.18)
Baldwin (UST)
14,685
(0.29)
Barr/Root (Lib.)
23,716 (0.47)
Nader/Gonzalez (NLP)
33,085
(0.66)
Alan Keyes (w/in)
129
-
Brian Moore (w/in)
41
-
Total........ 5,001,766


2008 Overview
In early October, as the financial crisis piled on top of Michigan's own "one-state recession," the McCain camp cut its campaign here and shifted most of its resources from the state.  Obama went on to amass a plurality of 823,940 votes (16.47 percentage points), carrying 47 counties to 36 for McCain.  The three Detroit area counties (Wayne, Oakland and Macomb) produced 39.4% of the total votes in the presidential race (1,968,610 votes).  In those three counties Obama tallied a plurality of 572,234 votes.  In Macomb County, of Reagan Democrat fame, Obama won 53.38% to 44.77% of the 419,216 votes cast.
General Election Details
Obama/Allies  |  McCain/Allies  |  Nader

General Election -- Tuesday, November 2, 2004
Voting Eligible Population*: 7,263,024.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 66.6%.


Total Registration: 7,164,047.
Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
2,313,746
(47.81)
+Kerry/Edwards (Dem.)
2,479,183
(51.23)
Cobb (Grn.) 5,325 (0.11)
Peroutka (UST) 4,980
(0.10)
Badnarik (Lib.)
10,552
(0.22)
Brown (NLP)
1,431
(0.03)
Nader (NPA)
24,035
(0.50)
Total........4,839,252
 




2004 Overview
Bush made it close in Michigan, but Kerry prevailed in the end with a plurality of 165,437 votes (3.42 percentage points).  Bush carried 68 counties to 15 for Kerry.  The three Detroit area counties (Wayne, Oakland and Macomb) produced 39.5% of the total votes in the presidential race (1,909,115 votes).  Kerry amassed a plurality of 342,294 votes in Wayne county and narrowly won in Oakland county, while Bush narrowly won in Macomb county.
General Election Details
Kerry/Allies  |  Bush/Cheney '04

General Election -- Tuesday, November 7, 2000
Voting Eligible Population*: 7,070,702.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 59.9%.


Total Registration: 6,859,332.
ll


Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
1,953,139
 (46.15)
+Gore/Lieberman (Dem.)
2,170,418
(51.28)
Browne/Olivier (Lib.)
16,711
(0.39)
Hagelin/Goldhaber(NLP)
2,426
(0.06)
Phillips/Frazier (UST) 
3,791
(0.09)
Nader/LaDuke (Grn.)
84,165
(1.99)
Buchanan (w/in)
1,851
 (0.04)
Total........4,232,501

Total voters: 4,279,299
Turnout (% of VAP) was 58.2%

Notes
The Democratic, Republican, Reform, Libertarian and Natural Law parties all retained ballot status from 1998.  The US Taxpayers Party of Michigan and the Green Party of Michigan qualified by petitioning, submitting the required 30,272 valid signatures (1 percent of the total vote cast for governor in 1998) by July 20, 2000.  No Reform Party nominee appeared on the ballot because competing factions submitted two sets of papers, one for Buchanan and one for Hagelin. 

2000 Overview
The battleground state of Michigan went to Gore by a plurality of 217,279 votes (5.13 percentage points).  Bush carried 58 counties to 25 for Gore.  Almost 40% of the total vote (39.8%) comes from the Detroit area (Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties).  Gore piled up a plurality of 307,393 votes in Wayne county and narrowly won in Oakland and Macomb.  As expected, Bush did well in Western Michigan (Kent County/Grand Rapids and the surrounding counties).  He underperformed in the city of Detroit, and would have had to have done better in Western Wayne county as well as in Oakland and Macomb to carry the state.

A statewide school vouchers initiative, Proposal 1, was overwhelmingly defeated, 69.1% to 30.9%.

General Election Activity


1992 and 1996 General Elections

1992
Clinton (Dem.).....1,871,182
(43.77)
Bush (Rep.).........1,554,940
(36.38)
Perot (Ind.)............824,813
(19.30)
Others (4+w/ins)......23,738
(0.56)
Total........4,274,673
Overall 4,341,909 people voted out of 6,147,083 registered. 
The VAP was 6,947,000 for a turnout (% of VAP) of 62.5%.
1996
Clinton (Dem.).....1,989,653
(51.69)
Dole (Rep.).........1,481,212 
(38.48)
Perot (Ref.)............336,670
(8.75)
Others (4+w/ins)......41,309
(1.07)
Total........3,848,844
Overall 3,912,261 people voted out of 6,677,079 registered. 
The VAP was 7,072,000 for a turnout (% of VAP) of 55.3%.
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