Voter turnout high during general election
Photo by Dave Lein
With strong voter turnout sweeping the nation for Tuesday’s General Election, northern Michigan was no different. Polling sites across Antrim and Kalkaska counties saw strong numbers throughout the morning and well into the early evening, with few lulls. Shown here, a voter casts her ballot Tuesday at the Helena Township Community Center in Alden.
ANTRIM COUNTY – In what undoubtedly is one of the highest turnouts for any election ever, and what is believed to be a record turnout for a mid-term election, Antrim County voters turned out in droves, with Republicans candidates winning most seats, to voice their opinions in Tuesday's mid-term election.
Although all of Antrim County's 15 townships saw participation by more than 55 percent of the registered voters in that township, highest participation in the Nov. 6 election was in Elk Rapids Township, which had a 74.12 percent turnout, followed by Torch Lake Township, where 73.8 percent of registered voters cast their ballots, and Forest Home Township, which had 73.3 percent participation rate.
Fortunately for poll workers, many of whom worked more than 18 hours on Election Day, absentee ballots made up a large portion of the high participation in the election, with Forest Home Township seeing more than 400 AV ballots returned in time to be counted.
But that doesn't mean that polls weren't extremely busy on Tuesday.
In Central Lake Township, aspiring voters found an overflowing township hall parking lot and people lined up at the door in the rain at 6:45 a.m. waiting for polls to open, a scenario echoed by a number of other townships, while voters in Kearney Township read signs pasted to exterior doors asking participants to "Be patient, as we are VERY busy!"
Those very high voter numbers also meant a longer wait for results, as most precinct workers found themselves too busy dealing with packed polls to process absentee ballots until polls were closed at 8 p.m., according to Antrim County Clerk Sheryl Guy. Antrim County released its 115 page summary of election results shortly before 3 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 7.
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