The primary elections are normally the calmer version of elections.
This year was even smoother in Traverse City.
With three different ways to vote — absentee, in-person and early voting — the polls have not had to deal with many voters, nor their ballots.
Erin Whiting was the chairperson of Precinct 9, which collected votes at Northwestern Michigan College. She said Tuesday had gone really smoothly.
“We have a great team of volunteers here, and we have really had no issues throughout the day,” Whiting said. “We’ve had a lot of enthusiastic voters, a lot of first-time voters, which is exciting.”
She also said the precinct had a ton of absentee voters, and that no-reason absentee ballots have likely made it more accessible for people to vote now.
“Another thing is if folks get an absentee ballot and they would prefer not to mail it in, they can bring it into the precinct and cast that absentee ballot as a regular ballot and put it through the tabulator machine themselves,” Whiting said. “A lot of people have done that too.”
Brett McQuater voted at the NMC location. He said the voting felt pretty smooth despite a feline-caused accident.
“My ballot was accidentally spoiled by a cat hairball, so they allowed me to sign an affidavit to have it spoiled and redone,” McQuater said. “They had to call the clerk’s office and let them know to ... like, officially not have that counted.”
McQuater, who does social work, said the community probably voted for progressive Democratic candidates, like Abdul El-Sayed, the way he did because the current government shouldn’t have the say in who deserves help.
“A lot of agencies in this area know the cuts are coming, and they’re prioritizing who gets cut and who doesn’t,” he said.
Voting from the other side at NMC, Buddy Sills said he voted for candidates like John James due to the endorsements from current President Donald Trump.
“(I) trust his endorsements, trust the job he’s doing for our country right now, and want to keep it, keep it headed in the same way,” Sills said.
Despite concerns about national voting security, he said he trusts the voting process in Traverse City.
“Locally, I don’t have that much of a problem where we’re a pretty good law-abiding community,” Sills said. “I don’t feel like we have any fraud issues here, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist elsewhere.”
