How Michigan voters can fix a ballot mistake before it's cast

If you notice something off on your printed ballot in Michigan, don’t worry: you can start over before it goes into the tabulator. The process is designed for exactly this moment, and precinct workers are there to help you cast the ballot you actually want.

Michigan’s voting workflow makes checking your work easy. Make your choices on the touch screen, review them, verify your selections, print the paper ballot, place it in a secrecy sleeve, hand the application to vote to a precinct worker to remove the ballot stub, and insert the ballot into the tabulator. The review screen and the printed ballot are where you look for a race left blank, a candidate or ballot question selected by accident, or a contest where your choice did not register at all.

The most important thing to remember: the printed paper ballot is what actually gets counted — not what appeared on the touch screen. Give the paper itself a quick look before you cast it.

If you catch a mistake before you cast

A ballot that has already been tabulated cannot be pulled back or changed. A mistake is only fixable before the ballot is successfully cast.

That is what Michigan’s spoil-and-start-over rule is for. Under state law, MCL 168.740, a voter who inadvertently spoils a ballot returns all the ballots given to them to the election board, which delivers another ballot or set of ballots and records the new ballot number in the poll book.

Spoiling the first ballot costs you nothing: the mistaken ballot is set aside rather than counted against you, and the fresh ballot is the one that gets counted. The remedy is a replacement ballot, not erasing or correcting marks on the spoiled one — you return the mistaken ballot and request a new one.

The way to ask is simple: stop before inserting the ballot into the tabulator, return it to an election inspector, and request a fresh one. Precinct workers are trained to hand over a replacement ballot without judgment. When a replacement is issued, the inspector records the original ballot as spoiled in the e-pollbook, writes “Spoiled” on it, and places it in the designated Spoiled and Defective Ballots Envelope before you complete and cast the fresh ballot.

If the tabulator kicks your ballot back

If the tabulator rejects a ballot — for an overvote, a stray mark, a tear, or other damage — it returns the ballot and displays the reason. The election inspector reviews the message, explains the problem, and offers a replacement ballot.

On an overvote, you may choose to accept the ballot anyway: the overvoted contest will simply not count while the rest of the ballot is still tabulated. Inspectors are instructed to explain that consequence and offer another chance at a replacement.

Who to call if anything still feels off

Genesee County Clerk / Register of Deeds Domonique Clemons has urged voters to review and complete every page of the ballot, including ballot questions, and to contact their local clerk with questions rather than relying on social media. “A rumor is not evidence,” Clemons said.

For election and voting questions, the Genesee County Clerk Elections Division can be reached at (810) 257-3283, at 1101 Beach Street, Flint, MI 48502. The Flint City Clerk’s Office is at (810) 766-7413, 1101 S. Saginaw St., 2nd Floor, Room 201-C, Flint, MI 48502. Clemons’s office line is (810) 257-3224.

Catching a wrong or blank ballot before the tabulator gives you a clean slate. Michigan’s spoil-and-start-over rule exists precisely so a voter can begin again with confidence — and because the printed paper ballot is what is counted, not the touch screen, your own read of that paper is a meaningful final check.

General Election Day in the City of Flint is Tuesday, November 3, 2026.