Michigan voters chose the GOP ballot by 2 to 1 over the Dems

It's usually perilous to draw too many conclusions from primary turnout, in terms of forecasting general election outcomes. But for a Democratic leaning state like Michigan, it's noteworthy that twice as many voters chose GOP ballots yesterday as those picking Dem ballots.

In fact, the 1.045M GOP ballots cast yesterday nearly match the 1.047M Dem ballots cast in the '02 GOV race. Both contests were fiercely-contested primaries, so the 1M+ turnouts in these races shouldn't be surprising. What's more interesting is that even the barely-contested '02 GOP GOV contest (in which then-LG Dick Posthumus smoked then-state Senate Pres. Pro Tem Joe Schwarz 81%-19%) still brought 583K Republicans to the polls. By contrast, yesterday's competitive MI Dem GOV primary between Virg Bernero (D) and Andy Dillon (D) only convinced 527K voters to select a Dem ballot.

To be sure, the money spent by the GOP GOV candidates compared to the Dems surely played a large factor, but these numbers may indicate some MI Dems aren't enthused about their chances to win this fall.