While precincts in some communities had voter turnout so low that workers questioned the need to even hold a primary election in the state last Tuesday, Orion Township Clerk Jill Bastian was pleased with local turnout.
‘Obviously we’d like to be over 50-percent turnout, and we were prepared for that,? Bastian said. ‘But we were pleased to see a 25-percent turnout in Orion.?
There were no local issues on the ballot and the movement of the primary to January effected how the national parties viewed the state, but county and township voter totals were noticeably higher than the rest of the state.
Just over 25-percent of county voters turned out for the election, a number that was just under 25-percent in the township (or 5,802 of the registered 23,540 township voters).
‘We were certainly prepared,? Bastian said, thanking her workers and volunteers. ‘It made me feel good that all the efforts of our workers didn’t go for nothing.?
***
Romney, Clinton with both locally and across Michigan
What many pundits predicted would be a close race on the Republican side was anything but that in the state, where Mitt Romney, the son of former Gov. George Romney, topped Arizona Senator John McCain, earning nearly 39-percent of the vote to McCain’s 29.7-percent.
In Oakland County, and Orion Township, the results were skewed even more in Romney’s favor, as he took over 46-percent of the GOP vote county-wide (to McCain’s 26.8-percent), and nearly 45-percent township-wide (to McCain’s 25.8-percent).
The primaries were moved up to January in hopes of making the state more important on the national landscape. But, as a result, the national parties stripped the Republican side of half of their state delegates and the Democrats of all of theirs (though some expect delegates will be reinstated prior to the national conventions).
On the Dems? side, the move resulted in two of the three front runners, Illinois Senator Barack Obama and former South Carolina Senator John Edwards, taking themselves off the ballot.
That shift was credited for a large number of traditional Democrat supporters voting on the republican side.
About 40-percent of state-wide voters chose to vote on the Democrat side, while about 25-percent did so in Orion Township, where the primary was closed (meaning voters had to pick their ballot before voting).
Hillary Clinton garnered 55.3-percent of the state’s vote and 55.5-percent of the township’s vote, winning both with ease.
Many of Obama’s and Edwards? supporters ended up voting ‘uncommitted,? which received 40-percent of the vote state-wide and 38.1-percent of the vote in Orion.