MUSKEGON, Mich. — Early voting in Michigan's presidential primary election starts this Saturday for most areas in Muskegon County.
The voting site is consolidated for almost all of Muskegon County, which is located at the Muskegon County Administration building.
Dalton and Holton townships decided to instead host their own which will run during the same days as the consolidated site, Feb. 17 through Feb. 25. That's a total of nine consecutive days.
The consolidated site is located on the route the county bus line takes, making it more accessible for all residents to cast their votes.
Muskegon County Clerk Karen Buie said while preparing for the county's first experience with early voting has been a challenge, she's glad the opportunity is available to the community.
"My concern as the county clerk is to make sure that everybody votes, that every vote counts," said Buie. "I don't care if they're Republicans Democrats, libertarians, Green Party, I don't care. I just want to make sure that everyone gets a chance to vote in a safe and secure environment."
Buie also said the turnout for early voting is a sort of test run to determine how they'll need to handle future elections.
"If we find that we have a lot of voters coming in, and we need to look at maybe having a satellite office in the northern part of the county or the southern part of the county based on the number of voters that come," she said.
She said this will also help them determine safety.
"In the upcoming elections, because of the amount of criticism I think the County Clerks have faced over the last few elections, I just wanted to make sure that our elections were safe and secure, and that I can make sure that the community feels safe," Buie said. " So we're basing it on that. We're making sure that we have all security in place. And we're coordinating with law enforcement to make sure that our voters and our election workers feel safe."
Buie said she works to make voting accessible and safe for all because of how important it is.
"That's our opportunity to voice and I just encourage everyone to get registered to vote, to make sure that you exercise the right that many people gave their lives for," she said.
Election Day is Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024.
The polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. on election day.
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