New voting precincts for city of Birmingham

The city of Birmingham has consolidated its nine existing election precincts into five election precincts, a measure that increases efficiency, reduces costs and changes precinct numbers and/or polling places for most of the city’s registered voters, according to city clerk Alexandria Bingham.

The Birmingham City Commission approved the consolidation, which takes effect immediately, by a unanimous vote in June. Voters will receive voter identification cards confirming their new precinct and polling location assignments by mail this summer. The information is also available immediately online at mi.gov/vote by clicking the “Am I registered?” option. The City Clerk’s Office encourages voters to become familiar with their new voting information before the city’s next election on November 4.

The new precinct boundaries were drawn to be as compact and contiguous as practical, using major roads as borders while staying within the legal limits of no more than 4,999 active voters per precinct, according to Bingham.

Voters can see a map of the new precincts and polling places at bhamgov.org/votinglocations, at the clerk’s office in city hall, and on postcards mailed to each Birmingham household.

Five of the previous polling place locations remain the same in the new configuration: Baldwin Public Library, Derby Middle School, NEXT/Midvale School, Pierce School and Fire Station No. 1 on Adams Road. Holy Name Catholic Church, First Presbyterian Church and the Birmingham Ice Arena will no longer serve as polling places.

In-person voters on Election Day should experience no difference in wait time at polling places because the majority of Birmingham voters now cast ballots by mail or during early voting, greatly reducing the number of people voting at the polls on Election Day, according to Bingham. In Birmingham’s November 2024 election, slightly less than 35 percent of the votes were cast in person on Election Day, compared to 48 percent in November 2022 (before early in-person voting was an option), and 66 percent in November 2018 (before the implementation of no-excuse-necessary absentee ballots).