GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Election Day is no longer just one day. Now, with nine days of early voting available, many voters are skipping the long lines and are voting when it is convenient.
“Very easy, very fast.”
“Moving in and out and being able to move on with my day has been fantastic.”
“I just come early on my own time, and it's very convenient and nice.”
August primary voting is underway. It started last weekend.
People who are voting early love it.
“Early voting is a really big benefit to me this year because we are headed out on vacation back to Boston where we used to live. So, we'll be gone for the primary,” said early voter Alex.
This is the second big election for Grand Rapids using early voting. The first was in February and only around 500 people voted early.
“We'd like to have some more voters utilizing the process,” said Grand Rapids City Clerk Joel Hondorp.
To make early voting easier, Grand Rapids has three locations that any city voter can use.
Hondorp said, “One here at GRPS. University, a second one at St. Peter and Paul School on the west side. And the third one in the southeast side are in Ward 3 at Ottawa Hills High School.”
The city clerk says even though early voting is new, that was not always the case.
“The presidential election was 34 days and went from November to December. It wasn't until new technology came around in the 1840s called The Telegraph that they went to one day, the first Tuesday after the first Monday,” said Hondorp.
He says early voting is just as secure as the ballots cast on Election Day.
“Now with early voting, it's just expanding Election Day out. So yeah, the safety, security is all the same as we go through the whole process,” said Hondorp.
He says right now turnout for early voting is low but that will change, saying, “It's going to take a couple election cycles for the word to get out and for voters to get used to it.”
It you want to vote early, you still can. Early voting will continue until Sunday. After that, you will have to wait until Election Day on Tuesday.
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