Michigan says ‘technical issue’ slowed voting

Campaign Michigan says ‘technical issue’ slowed voting Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 08/05/26 9:38 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 08/05/26 9:38 AM ET Comments: Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Michigan state officials on Tuesday said a “technical issue” slowed down voting as millions of registered voters cast their ballots in the state’s primary election.

The Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget (DTMB) “addressed a technical issue that temporarily impacted the qualified voter file,” it wrote on the social platform X. “The issue is currently resolved –– voting is operating as expected. There is no indication that the issue was caused by malicious activity.”

The department added that it will monitor systems “closely.”

DTMB spokesperson Angela Benander told the Detroit Free Press that officials were made aware of the outage at about 5:30 p.m. before it was resolved one hour later. Benander added the issue affected the counting of absentee ballots and slowed down the same-day registration process.

Progressive Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was projected to advance to the November general election against former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) on Wednesday morning, defeating Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), according to Decision Desk HQ.

DDHQ preliminary numbers show El-Sayed leading with 48.52 percent of the votes to Stevens’s 47.47 percent as of 8:35 a.m. EDT Wednesday.

This race is perhaps this cycle’s biggest front in the battle for the direction of the Democratic Party as progressives and democratic socialists seek to claim more primary victories and oust longtime incumbents and establishment candidates.

The growing rift within the caucus has some mainstream Democrats fretting that progressives like El-Sayed will be tough sells to general election voters in November. Others argue that their “big tent” can include more differing opinions as long as there’s unity against President Trump.