Made a mistake on your Michigan ballot? Here's how to fix it.

The moment a mark goes down in the wrong oval, the ballot is still just paper in your hand. As long as it stays there, a mistake on a Michigan ballot is not a lost vote — it is a fixable one.

Michigan law plans for mistakes. The ballot itself carries the fix, telling voters that if they make a mistake, they should return the ballot to the election official and obtain a new ballot. Do not try to erase or correct any mark; hand the whole ballot back and get a clean one.

At the polls

At a polling place, the person to flag down is any election worker — in practice, the election inspector at the check-in station handles spoiled ballots.

You do not need to explain which contest you marked wrong, for whom you meant to vote, or how it happened. The ask is simple: "I made a mistake on my ballot and I need a new one." You do not have to give a reason.

Spoiling a ballot and issuing a fresh one is routine, governed by rules the Michigan Secretary of State's Bureau of Elections publishes for every polling place.

How the fix works

When you hand the ballot over, the inspector records it as spoiled in the ePollbook and on the Application to Vote. Then the inspector writes "Spoiled" across the ballot itself and places it in an envelope labeled Spoiled Ballots. That envelope is the end of the line for the mistaken ballot — it stays out of the count entirely.

The law spells out the exchange: an elector who inadvertently spoils a ballot returns all of the ballots given, and the board delivers another ballot or set of ballots bearing the same number.

There is no cap on do-overs. Michigan places no set limit on how many replacement ballots a voter may receive, and the Electronic Pollbook Manual directs election workers to issue a new ballot every time the voter asks, no matter how many times that is, as long as each spoiled ballot is returned and recorded. A second slip — or a third — is not a contest against the clock. You can take the fresh ballot back to the booth and start over, rather than settle for a mark you know is wrong.

Getting it right

If you are not sure you can mark the ballot correctly — or at all — you are entitled to help. A voter who states they cannot mark the ballot may be assisted by two election inspectors from different political parties, who can show you how to mark it or mark it as you direct. You do not have to state a reason for the request, and the inspectors must keep how you voted confidential.

A correct mark means the oval is completely darkened next to the candidate you chose, in black or blue ink only, and that you have not voted for more candidates in a contest than allowed.

State voting-equipment guidance is explicit: look at both sides of the ballot, including the reverse side, and review every selection before you submit it.

The machine itself offers one safeguard. If the tabulator detects an overvote — more choices marked in a contest than the contest allows — it returns the ballot to you before counting it. You can then spoil that ballot and get a new one, or cast it as marked, in which case the overvoted contest simply does not count while your other valid selections still do.

Voting from home

Absentee voters get the same do-over. If you made a mistake on a ballot you received by mail, the Michigan Attorney General's election-protection guidance directs you to contact your local clerk's office, which will assist you and issue a new ballot. When a second ballot is requested, the first is flagged and invalidated in the Qualified Voter File so it cannot be counted twice. And if you received an absentee ballot but would rather vote in person, you can surrender the unsubmitted absentee ballot at your polling place and be given a precinct ballot instead.

All of this depends on the ballot still being in your hands. A ballot cannot be spoiled or replaced once it has been fed into the tabulator and counted. There is no pulling it back and no re-marking it. The only time to fix an error is before that last step.