Beginning today in Michigan, election officials in some cities will be able to start processing absentee ballots. The new law passed last month allows officials in cities with at least 25,000 people to begin getting absentee ballots ready to count, sorting them and opening outer envelopes. But they can’t start counting until tomorrow, and can only process today from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. Previously, officials had to wait until Election Day to start processing absentee ballots. Still, even with a small head start, Michigan’s secretary of state estimated that it could take until Friday for all the ballots to be counted.