By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
ssoldan@mihomepaper.com
On Aug. 6, area voters turned out for in-person voting during the August primary election. This year they had the options of absentee voting, nine days of early voting, or voting on election day.
In Brandon Township, of the 13,770 voters, 3,242 voted in the primary in some way, which gives a voter turnout for Brandon of 23.5%. Five of the six precincts had between 20%-30% voter turnout, with the exception of precinct five with 8.26%. Brandon had a total of 202 early voting participants.
“The election day process went very well,” said Brandon Township Clerk Roselyn Blair. “Thank you to those who came out and voted, it’s important to let your voice be heard. Obviously we couldn’t do it without our election workers. With it being a primary election, I understand the frustration of not being able to split your ticket, but please keep in mind it helps dwindle down candidates for the general election.”
In Groveland, of the 5,360 registered voters, 1,569 ballots were cast, which was 29.2% voter turnout.
“We had 117 early voters, which was very comparable to what we had in February,” said Groveland Township clerk Jenell Keller. “I was hoping for a little bit more, truthfully. Absentee still had the majority of the votes.”
Precincts one and three in Groveland had over 30% voter turnout, and precinct two had around 19% voter turnout.
“I’m hoping that people start picking up on the opportunity for early voting,” said Keller. “Our election workers are here and they want to help.”
In Atlas Township, there were 2,130 ballots cast out of 6,710 registered voters, which equated to 31.7% voter turnout for this election. All four precincts had over 30% turnout.
In Oakland County, 24.88% of registered voters participated in the primary election, according to the Oakland County Clerk’s Office. Genesee County voter turn-out was slightly lower at 22.71 according to the Genesee County Clerk’s Office.