I live in Clinton Township MI. I voted earlier this morning. I arrived at my precinct at around 7:20 and it took about 50 minutes of standing in line for me to cast my vote. I was vote #60 for my precinct.
Unfortunately there were other people in another precinct in Clinton Township who didn't have such a smooth voting experience.
Follow me below the squiggle for more.
The 28th precinct opened up at 7:00 am this morning to a line of people. Things were going fine till about the 50th voter at 7:45. Then poll workers informed people that they were out of ballots.
People were finally allowed to vote again just before 10:00 am when more ballots arrived.
“We knew this day was coming,” said Christina Whitenight, one of the voters who waited about 2 hours to vote because of the lack of ballots. “They weren't prepared for voters.”
The Clinton Township clerk
attributed the lack of ballots to three things.
He says newly drawn up legislative districts made it difficult to anticipate how many people would vote in each precinct. Plus there was a new state law that requires school board elections be held on even years. That split up the 28th precinct, which exists in 2 school districts. There were then more voters than anticipated in half of the split 28 the precinct.
What is going on in our country when a polling place runs out of ballots within an hour after opening? Here, there were people who had to wait hours just for ballots to be delivered. But how many people didn't wait? This is sick that this would be allowed to happen. Something needs to be done.
On a sidenote.. They say that turnout for this precinct has been extremely busy and say that it could beat 2008 numbers.