LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan’s primary election is in one week and precincts experienced brief technological trouble during the first day of early voting.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said a state server became overtaxed by non-election activities on Saturday and temporarily disrupted voting. She said it impacted the performance of electronic pollbooks. A spike in other apps on the server slowed things down; Benson said backup plans allowed voting to continue uninterrupted and she’s confident it won’t happen again.

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Michigan News Source reached out to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to ask what specific apps were open and why they were running on a day state employees weren’t at work. MNS also asked what specific guarantee Secretary Benson has of ensuring more technological snafus won’t happen again.

Benson’s office referred the questions to the Department of Technology, Management, and Budget. Michigan News Source did not hear back by press time.

New laws in Michigan now allow early in person voting and no reason absentee voting. Over the weekend, Michigan precincts saw a combined 10,621 voters show up in person to cast their ballots.

Absentee ballot numbers have gone down since 2020. On July 27, 2020, roughly 1.7 million Michigan voters requested absentee ballots. This year, after no reason absentee voting laws hit the books, about 1.6 million Michigan voters requested absentee ballots. The trend continues with the number of ballots submitted. In 2020, more than 812,000 voters submitted their ballots with 8 days to go before election day. This year, 698,673 have turned in ballots.

Michigan’s primary election is Tuesday, Aug. 6. Polls are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. For more information on voting click here.