The November 2004 general election results, down to how each precinct voted, are now available online, the Michigan Secretary of State office reported.

The results for the election had been available before, but not by precinct, said Kelly Chesney, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land.

"It used to take up to year to make the numbers available because there's over a million keystrokes involved in entering this data," Chesney said. "We've made some technical enhancements to make this information available sooner."

Chesney said researchers and policy makers need specific information about voting patterns.

Although the process has been sped up, Rep. Chris Ward, R-Brighton Township, chairman of the House Oversight, Elections, and Ethics Committee, said because Michigan's election results go to the cities before the county, getting results can take longer.

"We have more layers when conducting elections than most states," Ward said.

Election results in East Lansing are first sent to City Clerk Sharon Reid, where she and the election workers count the ballots and then fax the results to Ingham County.

Reid said most of the precincts have their results in between 11 p.m. and midnight on Election Day and fax them by about 3 a.m.

"It depends on the election and how long it takes," Reid said. "We use the punch cards so there's a lot of clerical duties that have to be done."

Starting in March, East Lansing will use voting machines that will tabulate the results at the precincts, which should make the process go faster, Reid said.

Once East Lansing's election results are sent into the county, the results are usually sent into the Secretary of State within a week, Charlene Corrigan, elections coordinator for Ingham County, said.

View the complete set of results at www.mi.gov/sos.