Orion residents went to the polls in force with more than 19,000 out of 26,000 registered voters casting ballots in Orion Township.
Seventy three percent of registered voters, slightly under the 2008 turnout of more than 77 percent, cast ballots.
More than 14,000 voters cast their ballot in person this election, while about 4,200 Orion Twp. residents voted by absentee ballot.
According to re-elected Orion Township Clerk Penny Shults, all township precincts ran efficiently. ‘Votes were tabulated and transferred to Oakland County around nine o’clock,? Shults said.
‘It was a community-wide effort; between the schools, the churches, the police department and sheriff, everybody was on board, and everybody did an outstanding job. Without their assistance, we couldn’t run a good election,? said Shults.
The only local race that was contested was for Lake Orion School Board. The seat went to Bill Holt, with 7,560 votes. Challenger Angela Nasso had 6,713. Fifty four write-in votes were cast.
All Orion Township seats ran without opposition. Chris Barnett won the race for Supervisor, with 13,027 votes,. Incumbent Clerk Penny Shults received 12,889. Mike Thurber won the Treasurer spot with 12,497 votes.
Michael Flood, Jr, Neal Porter, Donni Steele, and John Steimel won their unopposed Trustee re-election bids, taking home 11,097, 10,884, 10,783, and 10,665 votes respectively.
The Library Board Director slots were also unopposed. MaryAnne Thorndycraft won 6,847 votes, 6,736 went to James J. Abramczyk, 6,363 to Michael D. Luna, 6,698 to Mary Pergeau, 6,258 to James Phillips, and 6,142 to Bert M. Quinn.
In state and national races, Orion Township voted overwhelmingly in favor of Republican candidates this election. 58 percent of Orion Township voted for Mitt Romney, as opposed to 40 percent who chose President Obama.
In the race for State Senator, Orion went for Hoekstra over Stabenow by a margin of 51 percent to 44 percent. Orion’s choice for State Representative was 64 percent in favor of Mike Rogers, while 30.5 percent went for challenger Lance Eberle.
County Prosecutor Bishop was chosen over the challenger Democrat Cooper, 61 percent to 35 percent.
The Sheriff’s race was likewise decided in favor of the Republican offering in Orion: Bouchard maintained his Orion advantage, receiving nearly 72 percent, while challenger Jane Boudreau garnered 27 percent of Orion votes.
Turnout across Oakland County was heavy, with over 71 percent of registered voters casting their choice.
Oakland County cast 349,055 votes for incumbent Barack Obama and 296,531votes for Mitt Romney. Green party candidate Jill Stein took 2,640 votes to finish in third place. Virgil Goode of the Justice Party took 1,514 votes, and Ross C Anderson received 566 votes.
Oakland County cast 367,082 votes in favor of U.S. Senate incumbent Debbie Stabenow, while Republican Pete Hoekstra finished second with 252,009 votes.
The remainder of the votes for senator were divided between Scotty Boman (12,531), Harley Mikkelson (3,682) Richard A. Matkin (2,440), and John D. Litle (1,160).
The 8th District House of Representative seat was won handily by Mike Rogers who took 79,899 votes, while second place finisher Lance Eberle received 39,758. Libertarian Daniel Goebel nabbed 3,220, and Independent Preston Brooks received 3,112.
Republican Brad Jacobsen easily retained his seat as State Representative from the 46th District. He recieved 27,766 votes to Daniel W. Sargent’s 15,810 votes.
L. Brooks Patterson won the race for County Executive, tallying 352,318 to Kevin Howley’s 267,108.
The Oakland County Prosecuter’s race went to Democrat Jessica Cooper who took home 311,916 votes. Republican Mike Bishop finished second with 274,086. Steven Afton got third with 18,160.
Michael J. Bouchard won the Sheriff’s seat again, his 364,385 handily outdistancing the 252,066 votes won by challenger Jane Felice Boudreau.
The Oakland County Clerk race went to challenger Lisa Brown whose 313,391 votes beat incumbent Bill Bullard’s 272,592.
Democrat Andy Meisner won the Treasurer seat with 319,859. Marty Knollenberg received 277,149.
Jim Nash won the Water Commissioner seat with 292,889 votes, while John P. McCulloch came close with 285,446.