Leelanau County had the highest voter turnout in Michigan, according to the Michigan Voter Information Center, with the most registered voters turning out to cast their ballots in the Nov. 5 general election.
The Michigan Department of State (DOS) says 17,834 of 22,247 registered voters in Leelanau County turned out for the general election, or 80.2% of voters. The official results, a statement of votes cast on leelanau.gov/ electionresults.asp, suggest an even higher percentage turnout, mostly because they report a smaller total number of registered voters.
This document says 17,840 out of 20,094 registered voters turned out for the general election, for an approximately 88.8% turnout. The differences in total registered voters are because the county does not include some inactive registered voters who have moved and/or have not voted in the last six years.
The second highest turnout percentage in the state, according to the DOS, was in Livingston County, where 133,281 of 168,962 registered voters turned out, or roughly 78.9%. Third and fourth were Clinton and Keweenaw counties respectively, both of which were at about 76.4%.
Presidential election results on leelanau.gov go back to 2008. In 2008, the total was just 14,542 out of 18,786 registered voters, or 69%. But that percentage increased in every subsequent presidential election to 73.4% in 2012, 74.8% in 2016, and 79.5% in 2020.
Leelanau County historically boasts high turnout in midpresidential- term years as well; the “land of delight” also had the highest voter turnout in Michigan in 2022, at 71.9% of registered voters.
Overall, Michigan had the third highest voter turnout in the country at 74.6% of eligible voters turning out, behind Wisconsin at 76.9% and Minnesota at 76.4%. These percentages are from a University of Florida election data analysis from Nov. 30.
