GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — With just days until the August primary, early voting is underway in Michigan—and while thousands across the state have already cast their votes, early voter turnout has been low in Grand Rapids.
Grand Rapids City Clerk Joel Hondorp said that he believes residents may need to be made aware that early voting is now an option. He said only 84 voters cast their ballot on Saturday and 55 on Sunday.
The early voting option was introduced in February, and Hondorp hopes residents are aware that voting early can make the process easier.
“If someone that works out of town and is not available, this gives them time,” he said. “Or if they're going camping and they're going to be gone for a few days… this gives them that option for a nine-day period.”
Hondorp said voting early can also help people have more trust in the election process.
"So this whole process is new," he said. "What (early voting) does do is gives voters who're maybe going out of town and not comfortable voting an absentee ballot, and so this way they can go get a ballot and put it through the tabulator themselves to make sure that it was voted properly."
In Grand Rapids, three locations offer early in-person voting:
- GRPS University
- Ottawa Hills High School
- St. Peter and Paul Catholic School
Meanwhile, nearly 1 million votes have already been cast statewide. In a press conference Monday, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said between early and absentee voting, Michiganders have already cast over 700,000 ballots for the Aug. 6 primary. About 10,000 of those votes were cast at an early voting location.
The last day for early voting is Sunday, Aug. 4, and regularly scheduled voting will begin Tuesday, Aug. 6.
To learn more about early and absentee voting as well as finding important dates and times for the upcoming election, check out our guide here.