Out of the 3,100 absentee voter registrations mailed out, the Independence Township Clerk’s office has received over 1,700 back according to Clerk Barbara Pallotta.
“We have a permanent list we send to the printer,” she said.
The clerk’s office sent out military ballots on June 18 and local ballots on Tuesday, June 21.
Pallotta said there is still time to request an absentee ballot. Those wanting to vote absentee and have them mailed to their homes need to have their applications to the clerk’s office by 2 p.m., July 30.
“They can come to our office on Monday, Aug. 1, but they won’t be allowed to take the ballot home. They will have to vote right there at the office,” she added.
As far as what’s on the Aug. 2 primary ballot, at the state and county level voters will be asked to elect representatives for Congress, state representative, county executive, prosecuting attorney, sheriff, clerk/register of deeds, treasurer, water resources commissioner, and county commissioner.
At the local level, voters will choose township board representatives which include incumbents Supervisor Pat Kittle, Clerk Pallotta and Treasurer Paul Brown running unopposed as well as incumbent trustees Jose Aliaga, Ron Ritchie and Andrea Schroeder. New candidates running for trustee are Rachel Loughrin and Tony Miller.
Ballot proposals include Oakland County Zoological Authority Renewal Millage, Independence Township Fire Millage and the Clarkston Community Schools Bond Proposal.
Pallotta said because Precinct 1 has both Lake Orion and Clarkston voters their ballot will have either the Clarkston Community School Bond proposal or the Lake Orion School’s building and site sinking fund tax proposal. She added Precinct 12 won’t have any school proposals because those voters are in the Waterford School District.
“It’s such a crapshoot these days (to know how many registered voters will come out,) Pallotta said. “The school district bond proposal could bring some people out more than usual. Clarkston School board had one bond proposal in a May election a couple years ago, and we ran out of ballots because we didn’t expect that many people to come out.”
Because of that incident, she said they ordered more ballots for August.
“I’d rather have too many than run out of them,” she said.
In 2012, the township had 26,092 voters with a 29.4 percent turnout (7,683) voted. 5,020 were precinct voters and 2,663 were absentee.
Pallotta said there is never a way to guess how many voters will show up because it’s just “all over the place.”
She gave an example of the 2012 presidential primary which had 6,116 voter turnout out of 26,092 registered or 23.44 percent, compared to the 2016 presidential primary this past March which yielded 11,251 voter turnout out of 27,181 registered or 41.39 percent.
“We never know what to expect,” Pallotta added. “We just have to be prepared for the most (voters) as best you can.”
She also gave a shout out to Clarkston State Bank and Rudy’s Market for supplying lunches every year for election workers.
“They do a great job,” Pallotta said.
As far as the upcoming August election, Pallotta said she is both nervous and excited.
“We have a lot to do, but we’ll be as ready as we can be,” she said. “I’ll be excited to see what the turnout is this time and compare it to 2012.”
For more details look to page 14 for the “Close of Registration” public notice.