ANN ARBOR – Just before polls closed in the Michigan Presidential Primary Election on Tuesday evening, election inspectors shared their insights on voter turnout over the course of the day.
At Pioneer High School, one precinct reported 723 voters by 6:58 p.m.
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Election inspector Jonah Copi, who served as a floater between precincts, said there was a line at Pioneer at 7 a.m. In the last hour of the day, a long line had formed with voters stopping by after work.
Election inspectors work 14 hour days from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and receive special training to help the process go smoothly.
“It’s not without its challenges,” said Copi. “The trainings that we’ve had are good but you can’t always plan for every irregularity that happens, which is tricky.”
Another staffer at Pioneer told A4 that the voter turnout in this primary was much higher than local elections she has overseen.
At Forsythe Middle School, voters were still trickling in at 7:30 p.m.
Election inspector Inge Gebert said their busiest times were at 7 a.m., lunch time and 5 p.m. She said she and her colleagues had followed countywide health and safety measures to keep polling stations sanitized over coronavirus fears.
“There’s a push to be as clean as possible,” said Gebert. “We’ve been sanitizing polling stations and pens every 20 minutes. I want people to know that we are trying to be as sanitary as possible.”
While Gebert said lines were never longer than 20 people, the flow of voters had been steady since 7 a.m.
“It was a very steady flow all day,” she said. “I mean, if you wanted to sit and knit it wasn’t going to happen today. We’ve got enthusiasm. People care.”
Forsythe’s two precincts, 5-12 and 5-11, had 500 and 670 votes by 7:30 p.m., respectively.
But Gebert said the figures are likely much higher due to an increase in absentee ballots, which City Hall has been busy processing.
“We’ve been pushing people to register for automatic absentee ballot applications and they’ve responded," she said. “A lot of people have told me they’re going to vote absentee in November. They’re planning it already."
Gebert’s colleague and chairperson, Doris Preston, has been an election inspector in Ward 5 since 1998.
“We’re probably doing better than 50% because the figures we’re giving you don’t include the absentee votes,” said Preston. “There could be as many as 500 or 600 absentee votes.”
Preston said the social aspect of the job is what she enjoys the most.
“I live in the neighborhood and I see all my neighbors come (to vote),” she said. “People come and just stand and talk. It’s a very social thing.”
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