Early voter turnout light
By Steve Herring
Published in News on November 3, 2015 1:46 PM
Polls opened this morning at 6:30 a.m., but several polling locations across the city did not see any voters prior to 7 a.m. and by 8:30 a.m. the totals had barely broken into the double digits.
Even the handful of voters normally waiting in line for the doors to open at First African Baptist Church on Harris Street was missing.
The polls will remain open until 7:30 p.m. today as voters cast ballots in countywide municipal and sanitary district elections.
Others than the rain that greeted early voters, the day got off to a relatively trouble-free beginning.
"So far it has been fairly quiet, pretty much what I had expected for a municipal (election)," Wayne County Board of Elections Director Dane Beavers said. "We have some precincts that only have a few voters that are eligible for this election. So I put three people in there and they are probably going to have about 10 or 15 voters throughout the whole day.
"So we have some that will be really slow, and then we have some that might be fairly busy downtown here for the mayor's race. But most of our outlying communities typically don't get a large number of voters."
Beavers said he still expects a 10 to 15 percent voter turnout.
Only eight people had voted by 8 a.m. at the normally busy Precinct 19, while 10 had voted at Precinct 20, both located at First African Baptist Church.
"It is a little slow, but it is early right now," Tracey Ohnmeiss, Precinct 20 chief judge, said. "Hopefully we will get our crowd in."
Ms. Ohnmeiss said the rainy weather could be part of the reason for the slow start, but that people who want to vote will do so.
"Everything is running smooth, no issues," she said. "It is just the weather."
Janice Wooten, Precinct 19 chief judge, said it had been 7 before the first vote had been cast.
"It is very slow for our precinct," she said. "We are normally busy as soon as the polls open, but this morning we didn't have anyone. I don't know if it was the weather because it was raining when I came out this morning."
Ms. Wooten said she thinks the weather was more of a factor than the limited size of the ballot.
"Or they just don't remember this election," she said. "Some people when I told them at my job, they actually remember us working Oct. 6 (for the primary). They were like, 'So what is going on now?'
"A lot of people, I don't know if they just forgot, or don't listen to the news."
Ms. Wooten said she thought if the precinct got 200 voters that it would be "doing good."
"I have gotten 300 and close to 400 (in previous election)," she said. "It is slow now, which means it may pick up."
Across town, at Precinct 12 at Greenleaf Christian Church, the story was similar. The first voter showed up at 7 and only 12 people had voted by 8:30 a.m.
"It is moving, but moving slow," Barbara Bynum, chief judge, said. "I think the rain is holding them in, too. Oct. 6 we had 101 for the whole, but that was just for the mayor and one council (seat). Today we have the mayor and districts.
"We are looking for March (primary) to be really busy."