ESCANABA — County, city, and township clerks saw a higher percentage of voters and absentee voter ballots overall in the Aug. 4 primary election earlier this month.

Escanaba City Clerk Phil DeMay used an established station located in the City Clerk’s office, created by the election commission, for the purpose of processing and counting absentee voter ballots.

“Absentee voter ballots were counted by an Absentee Counting and Receiving Board,” said DeMay. “…separately from precinct activity.”

There were 400 more absentee voter ballots in August’s primary, than the March election.

“There was an increase, however, it wasn’t significant. I suspect the General Election in November will see a significant increase in absentee voters,” said DeMay.

A little over 25% of registered voters in the city of Escanaba voted in person Aug. 4. In March 23% of registered voters voted in person. DeMay said the August primary ran smoothly and most residents arrived with their own personal protective equipment and practiced social distancing.

DeMay looks forward to the November general election and is prepared for the health and safety of workers and Escanaba citizens when voting in person at each precinct.

“I think we will see a great turnout at the polls along with a significant increase in absentee voters,” he said.

DeMay asks for pleasant, hard-working, dependable people to work on election day. People interested in working that day can go online to escanaba.org/clerk, and locate “City Clerk Forms and Applications” then click on “Election Worker Application”.

“Our election workers did a fantastic job,” DeMay said.

In Menominee County the increased number of absentee ballots were counted at the polls of each local jurisdiction.

“In Menominee County our voter turnout was 30.23%. For comparison, August 2018 was 17.35% and August 2016 was 15.68%,” said Menominee County Clerk Marc Kleiman.

Kleiman feels voter turnout in the upcoming November general election will be even higher than it was in November 2018 and November 2016.

There are 6,975 registered voters in Schoolcraft County. During the Aug. 4 primary 2,104 residents voted in 11 precincts, 30.16% of the registered voters. In Delta County 27% of the registered voters turned out, 8,031 out of 29,937 voters.

Ensign Township Clerk Mary Wilson processed more absentee voter ballots than the number of voters who voted in person.

“We saw a significant increase in the number of absent voter ballots,” said Wilson. “Though it didn’t slow us down, the process was easy. We ran them through the tabulator.”

Wilson found it curious 153 absent voter ballots were requested, but only 130 were returned.

“That’s an unusually high number of unreturned ballots … we mailed them out and they have never returned,” said Wilson. “I think that’s a significant amount.”

Out of 650 registered voters in Ensign Township 235 votes were counted, 36%. Wilson said Ensign Township is prepared and ready to count all votes that come into the precinct November, whether face-to-face or paper.

“We have personal protective equipment for all the workers, masks, shields, cleaning supplies. One worker will be cleaning constantly and hand sanitizer will be located at each voting station,” Wilson said. “We will have a safe environment for all voters.”

Bark River Clerk Mark Ray agrees with Wilson, in that primary election procedures worked out very well and attributes a lot of that to the leadership of Delta County Clerk Nancy Przewrocki.

“I think it looks good upon our leadership that we were all prepared and will be for the general election,” said Ray.