LANSING, Mich. — Bernie Sanders is looking to Michigan on Tuesday to rekindle his presidential campaign in the same way his surprise primary victory here did four years ago.
The state’s primary, the largest delegate prize in this week’s slate of Democratic contests, also presents a resurgent Joe Biden with a chance to continue his momentum in what effectively is a two-man race after his big Super Tuesday wins winnowed the field. Michigan’s polls close at 8 p.m.
Voters will enjoy expanded rights in Michigan’s first major election since the approval of a 2018 constitutional amendment that has resulted in a surge of early voting, which began Jan. 25. People who now can cast an absentee ballot without needing an excuse took advantage, submitting nearly 713,000 through Sunday - compared with 496,000 at the same point in 2016 when there was a competitive Republican primary.
The numbers of people voting were sparse at several polling places in the Detroit area.
The swell of absentee ballots, combined with so many Democratic candidates dropping out - especially since South Carolina and Super Tuesday - led to spikes in the number of voters scratching their ballots and submitting a new one. As of Monday morning, nearly 29,000 ballots had been “spoiled,” an eight-fold increase over 2016.
The trend is thought to benefit Biden as the party’s more moderate wing consolidates around him. Many states do not allow such do-overs.
Michigan’s influence has shown from candidates’ visits in the closing days.
Sanders, a senator from Vermont, held seven events over four days, urging large crowds to “think big” and embrace his plans to to cancel student debt and guarantee health care for all.
“We are capable of making sweeping change if we have the courage to do it,” he said in Ann Arbor.
Sanders criticized the former vice president’s record on trade, saying his support for the North American Free Trade Agreement more than 25 years ago would give Trump an edge in battleground Michigan in November.
Biden, who campaigned in three cities on the eve of the primary, was joined by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris - two former rivals for the nomination.
Biden touted “Obamacare” and said it should be expanded with a Medicare-like “public option,” not scrapped with a single-payer system that would supplant private insurance.
“I’m going to stand firm against anyone who tries to tear down the progress and start all over again,” Biden said in Grand Rapids. “Now Sen. Sanders is a good man. His Medicare-for-all push would be a long and expensive slog, if he can get it done at all.”
But some voters, like Russ Ming, 43, don’t believe Sanders would match up well with Trump. Ming voted Tuesday for Biden.
“He’s a more moderate candidate than Sanders,” said Ming, a mortgage banker from West Bloomfield in suburban Detroit. “I think it’s very important that we beat Trump, and Biden is the best to do it. My only goal is to remove the current president from office and install anybody else.”
Ronald Childs, 55, of Detroit, also voted for Biden, who he says has been an advocate of voting rights and of women and LGBTQ rights. He said Biden has a good foreign policy record and “the ability to work across the aisle” with Republicans to get things done.
Several residents who cast in-person absentee ballots in Lansing on Monday said they backed Biden.
“I just believe he has the honesty and desire to help all,” said Bobbie Hardy, 58, a retired nurse. She said a Biden supporter visited her church Sunday to advocate for him, and “it touched my heart.”
Larisa Leveck, 24, said she voted absentee for Sanders in the small town of Ovid north of Lansing.
“He’s the only one who’s got the platforms that I need,” she said, citing his stances on climate change, health care, money in politics, and making public universities and colleges free.
Mark Brewer, a former longtime chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, still cast an absentee ballot for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren two days after she ended her campaign. He said he expects higher turnout on the Democratic side than four years ago.
This is the first statewide contest in which people can register to vote at any time without a deadline, including on Election Day. Clerks in college towns saw lines on Monday and prepared for more students to show on Tuesday.
The state has said results will likely come later than usual because of the additional absentee ballots and factors such as same-day registrations.
“A lot could be riding on what happens Tuesday in Michigan,” Brewer said. “If Sanders wins again, that could recast the race yet again. Then he can say, ’I won a battleground state, a state that’s going to be key to the election.’ If Biden wins, he can say the same thing.”
Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey said there have no reported voting issues at city precincts.
Voting was suspended about 45 minutes Tuesday afternoon at Coloma Township Hall in southwestern Michigan after a driver accidentally crashed her car into the polling place.
No one was injured, and voting resumed after the crash area was cleaned up. The driver apparently mistook the car’s gas pedal for the brake, according to police.
Coloma Township is about 180 miles (290 kilometers) west of Detroit.
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Associated Press writer Corey Williams contributed from Detroit.
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