Early voting in Sterling Heights runs Oct. 24–Nov. 1 — here's how your ballot is secured and counted

At the Chaldean Community Foundation on 15 Mile Road — one of this year's designated early-voting sites for Sterling Heights voters — a Sterling Heights early ballot ends its trip the same way every time. The voter feeds the ballot into the tabulator, the machine records it, and from that moment it is final and cannot be changed. A rumor has been going around nationally claiming that early-vote ballots get thrown out — set aside, never counted, quietly discarded. That rumor does not describe what happens here, because a ballot cast in Sterling Heights can be followed from that tabulator through storage and certification, and every voter can check for themselves that theirs was received and counted.

Sterling Heights City Clerk Melanie D. Ryska, the city's lead election official, describes the process as built on "checks and balances for every single process." Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson puts it the same way: "No matter what method you choose, your vote will be secure. Every eligible Michigan voter can be confident that their vote will count, and their voice will be heard."

Michigan's recent ballot problems show the opposite of discarding. When 37 absentee ballots in Hamtramck were initially excluded from a mayoral result over chain-of-custody questions, a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling directed that they be reviewed and included, remanding the case for further proceedings — disputed ballots are reviewed and resolved, not thrown out. And when a ballot is spoiled, its ballot number is voided in the system so it cannot re-enter as a valid vote — an administrative safeguard, not evidence of ballots being tossed.

So here is the path a Sterling Heights early vote actually takes.

Where and when to vote early in Sterling Heights

For the November 3, 2026 general election, early in-person voting runs October 24 through November 1, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, including weekends. That nine-day window is written into Michigan's constitution.

Sterling Heights' designated early-voting sites include the Chaldean Community Foundation at 3601 15 Mile Road — the entrance is in back — and they may not be the same place where you vote on Election Day. Voters may use any of the city's designated early-voting sites; confirm locations and hours through the Michigan Voter Information Center or the Sterling Heights clerk's office.

Inside, it works like this:

• You check in and get a ballot.
• You mark the ballot in a voting booth.
• You feed the ballot directly into the tabulator yourself.
• Once it's fed, it's final — it cannot be changed.

The early-voting tabulators can accept ballots for multiple precincts while recording each ballot to the voter's own precinct.

What happens after the ballot goes into the tabulator

During early voting, no one can see candidate vote totals. Election workers can see only how many ballots have been processed — there is no running tally until polls close on Election Day.

At the end of each early-voting day, election officials:

• Reconcile the tabulator count against the poll book.
• Seal the voted ballots in an approved container.
• Record the seal number.
• Secure the tabulator and the election materials.

Early-voting ballots are counted after polls close on Election Day, after 8 p.m., and totaled and reported together with absentee and Election Day ballots. The count is then reviewed by Macomb County's bipartisan Board of Canvassers before certification, and both the county and state bipartisan canvassing boards certify the results. After certification, ballots that include a federal office are kept for 22 months in sealed, secure containers — available for any recount or audit.

The absentee path is just as verifiable

Sterling Heights voters also have the absentee-by-mail option for this election. Under Michigan election law, absentee ballots are generally available starting 40 days before Election Day. Benson is blunt about the deadline: "A voter's ballot must be in an authorized ballot drop box or received by their clerk no later than 8 p.m. on Election Day to be counted."

If a signature on an absentee application or return envelope is missing or doesn't match, Michigan treats it as a rejection — but the voter is notified and can fix, or "cure," the problem so the ballot is still counted rather than rejected outright. The clerk must explain how to cure it, the deadline, and other ways to vote if it isn't cured. When a Wayne County printing error put a library-board race on roughly 8,500 absentee ballots in the wrong form, officials said the affected ballots would be duplicated or reissued by election workers so the selections could be tabulated correctly — those voters weren't penalized.

How to check that yours was counted

The Michigan Voter Information Center tracks your absentee application and ballot, with statuses such as:

• Application received
• Application accepted
• Ballot mailed
• Ballot received
• Any rejection that needs curing

Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini launched Ballot Verifier, which posts anonymous scanned ballot images alongside each ballot's cast vote record — the tabulator's own record of how it read your marks — with no FOIA request required. Through it, you can compare a ballot image with its tabulator record, check whether each ballot was counted as marked, and compare the total records against the certified results, filtering by precinct and ballot type.

The images don't carry your name, address, or party affiliation; your privacy is at risk only if you write identifying information directly on the ballot.

Need a human? The Sterling Heights City Clerk's office is at 40555 Utica Road, 586-446-2420, [email protected]. Macomb County's Election Department is at 32 Market Street, Mount Clemens, 586-469-5209, [email protected].

Every step of that path is checkable — the poll book, the seal, the scanned image, the certified total. That is what makes the rumor fall apart here: not a promise, but a record you can look at yourself.