By Ilsa Minor

iminor@dailypress.net

WELLS — Despite it’s detractors, early voting has been a hit in Delta County this election season.

The general election marks the first time voters from across Delta County have been able to vote for president of the United States early at the Wells Township Hall. The last time any in-person early voting took place in Delta County was in late-July and early-August, when residents were able to weigh in on the August primary election. In that election, only 145 voters opted to vote early during the full nine-day early voting period.

“We were expecting a larger turnout for this election, but the turnout far surpassed the clerks, Bureau of Elections, and the vendors’ expectations,” Delta County Clerk Nancy Przewrocki told the Daily Press.

According to Przewrocki, the first day of early voting smashed the record for the August primary, with 373 voters casting ballots on Saturday, Oct. 26 — many of whom waited up to an hour-and-a-half to cast their ballot. As the days went on, the number of voters continued to climb, with 382 voters on Sunday, 444, voters on Monday, and 477 on Tuesday, bringing the total number of voters for the first four days of early voting to 1,676.

The influx of voters led to a few technical hiccups. The State Qualified Voter System was bogged down and the Ballot on Demand printer ran slowly before it ran out of toner. The toner running out was a surprise, as each cartridge was supposed to be capable of printing 3,000 sheets.

“These problems have occurred across the state. In fact, it is very difficult to find the X58 toner cartridge in the State of Michigan right now,” said Przewrocki.

In the short term, Przewrocki was able to swap in a cartridge from another printer. A cartridge was then brought in from Menominee County, but that cartridge also needed replacement Monday. Toner was then ordered, expedited, and the county’s IT department was able to provide two of the needed toner cartridges. Those cartridges allowed a second printer to be set up, cutting wait times in half.

There was also an unexpected shortage of the special paper needed to print the ballots. On Monday, the supply ran out.

“Fortunately, we had 18 inch blank ballot stock from August that Johnston Printing cut down to 17 inches for us to use,” said Przewrocki.

Blank ballot stock was ordered expedited at the same time as the toner. It arrived Tuesday and is expected to last through Sunday, the last day of early voting.

With the new printer and ballot stock, wait times at the Wells Township Hall dropped to 20 minutes or less by Tuesday evening.

It may not be surprising that toner and paper supplies are in demand across the state. According to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, 145,134 voters cast their ballots in-person on Saturday, with 12 early voting locations across the state seeing more than 1,000 ballots in the single day. By Tuesday morning, the number of early voters in Michigan had grown to 389,644.

Przewrocki reminded voters that anyone who was issued an absentee ballot that wants to vote at the early voting precinct in Wells needs to bring their absentee ballot with them. However, a large number of absentee ballots have already been returned.

According to the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office Wednesday, a total of 7,864 absentee ballots were requested for this election, with 76% of those ballots being requested through the permanent mail ballot list, which automatically sends absentee ballots to those enrolled on it. So far, 6,190 of those ballots have been returned.

In total, voter turn out for this election was already at 27.6% based solely on early voting and absentee ballots, as of Wednesday morning.

Przewrocki credited her election workers for early voting continuing to run smoothly despite the hiccups.

“I have to give my utmost respect and appreciation to the Election Inspectors (Kaye Rowlands, Leona Young, Ann Bissell, Dan Beggs, Jennifer Hebert, Virginia Hallfrisch and Mary Simonsen) who worked tirelessly on Saturday, Sunday and Monday without a lunch and no breaks, to make sure that the line was moving as fast as it possibly could move — they are very dedicated to the voting process and serving the voters,” she said. “I also have to thank the voters as they were very patient and understanding — most stated that they were just happy to be able to cast their votes.”

For those voters who plan to visit their local voting precinct on election day to cast their ballot, many of the idiosyncrasies of the early-voting process — like on-demand ballot printers — will not factor in to wait times. Przewrocki said there were plenty of pre-printed ballots waiting for election day, Nov. 5.