The following is a transcript of an interview with Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Oct. 20, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to Michigan Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson. Good morning to you, Madam Secretary.
SECRETARY OF STATE JOCELYN BENSON: Good morning.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So more than 1 million people have already voted in Michigan. More than 2 million people have requested absentee ballots. I know you cast your own ballot in Detroit, which began voting yesterday. What’s the turnout like?
SEC. BENSON: People are energized, and it’s been really exciting to see. Now we’re over two weeks out, just over two weeks out, and already, as you mentioned, over a million citizens have returned their absentee ballots, which is a great sign for an engaged electorate on both sides of the aisle. And then yesterday, Detroit launched early in person voting, where citizens could come and actually put their ballots into the machine. That’s what I did, and I joined close to 2000 others who did that. And just to give you some comparison, the first day of early in-person voting in Detroit in the August primary, we saw just over 200 people vote. This time we saw 2000, or close to 2000, 10 times, almost, as many. So that shows Detroit citizens are overwhelmingly enthusiastic and engaged, and I’m really grateful for all our partners who’ve been educating citizens about their rights to vote in these final weeks.