With less than a week before Election Day, states across the U.S. are seeing record voter turnout in early and absentee voting, and ballots cast, as of Oct. 27, were already approaching half of the total voter turnout in 2016.
In Michigan, early votes had come to 43.4% of those cast in 2016, which is just behind the national average of 48.2%, according to statistics from the U.S. Elections Project. Michigan’s numbers come from over 2 million returned mail-in ballots of the approximately 3 million that were mailed out to residents.
In Kalamazoo County, with 205,327 registered voters, 86,775 mail-in ballots were requested, according to the U.S. Elections Project. Of those, 63,915 have been received, making the percentage accepted so far 73.7.
Phyllis Ulrich, of Vicksburg, told the Kalamazoo Times that she was among those who have already cast their votes by absentee ballot.
While the presidential election is very important to her, Ulrich told the Kalamazoo Times that she cast a vote in every race, including local elections.
This year, the school board and sheriff's elections are particularly important to her, she said.
But on the national level, Ulrich said this election has greater significance. “It’s very important,” she told the Kalamazoo Times.
In trying to decide how to vote, Ulrich said there are multiple factors that have to be taken into account.
“The president is not liked for his personality by a lot of people, but he has done so much good for this country that we have to look beyond the fact that he has some traits that people don’t like,” she told the Kalamazoo Times.
Most importantly, though, Ulrich said people should not hesitate to cast their vote.
“We need every vote this year,” she told the Kalamazoo Times.
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