MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – County Clerks have been working for months to prepare for tomorrow’s election. Today, officials are preparing for the last round of voters and getting ready to start the count.
Marquette County saw 7,929 voters at 6 different sites over the past 9 days. The Marquette County Clerk, Linda Talsma, said they’re expecting long lines on Election Day. To keep things moving, Talsma said to make sure you check your registration and polling location ahead of time and have your ID ready to go.
“We’re all very pleased as county clerks to see these nice numbers come through,” Talsma said. “All our precinct inspectors that worked the elections, they worked hard, all your Township and city clerks, they worked hard.”
The cities of Houghton, Marquette, and Ishpeming have all begun preprocessing absentee ballots, but the count doesn’t start until polls close. Clerks will continue to accept mail-in ballots and voters can put ballots in drop boxes until 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Marquette’s first round of numbers is expected to come in around 9 pm, but Talsma said they might be counting votes until close to midnight. The counting doesn’t stop on Election Night either, overseas and military ballots are accepted for up to a week, as long as they are postmarked by election day.
“There’s nothing that anybody will find out before. It’s just getting a little bit ahead of the game, which is kind of nice.” Talsma said. “We have to do our due diligence on our end and make sure that everything is done correctly.”
3.1 million voters have already cast their ballots, which is close to 45% of all registered Michigan voters. U.P. County Clerks have said they are ready for one last busy day of voting in this year’s presidential election.
