OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — Saturday marks the first day of early voting in West Michigan, and at the Georgetown Charter Township office, the lines were much longer than expected.

Between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., just at the Georgetown Charter Township office, 808 people showed up to vote.

“I thought maybe I would beat the crowd, but I found myself in a really long line,” Michele Norton said.

As of Saturday, Ottawa County’s four early voting locations totaled 2,761 votes; that nearly matches the overall early voting total for the Aug. 6 primary election, which resulted in 2,862 votes.

“I’m just happy that we have the opportunity to do this, and I felt more compelled than ever to vote early,” Lisa Nash said.

Justin Roebuck, Ottawa County Clerk, said he didn’t expect such a large turnout.

“I think it’s really rewarding to see people wanting to participate at this level,” Roebuck said. “Our entire team has worked very hard, very diligently on the early voting process, and it’s just great to see the turnout.”

Early voting is relatively new and just starting this year. According to Roebuck, there was about a 1% turnout for early voting for the February primary and a 2% turnout for the state primary election in August. Yet to elect our new president, Roebuck said there has been a steady line of early voters all day.

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“Look at this result! We had a great first day of early voting. We only have 101 voters left to beat our overall August turnout,” Roebuck explained on social media.

Ottawa County wasn’t the only West Michigan county to see high turnout.

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“Today, 12,081 Kent County voters turned out for the first day of early voting in the November general election, almost triple in one day the number of voters who cast ballots during the entire early voting period of nine days in the August primary election,” said Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons.

Posthumus added that she was impressed with how local clerks handled the turnout.

She said there was a “paper jam” with a tabulator at a location in the city of Grand Rapids.

“…which required that tabulator to be maintained, so for a brief period of time, voters inserted their ballots into the secure auxiliary bin,” Posthumus said. “This is not unusual, and we never want these minor issues to delay the voting process and inconvenience voters, so our tabulators are equipped with these bins to allow them to continue voting safely.

The Kent County Clerk said only elections can access the auxiliary bin.

“Once the tabulator is serviced, the ballots deposited in the auxiliary bin are then placed into the tabulator by two election workers: a Republican and a Democrat,” Posthumus said.

The Muskegon County Clerk told FOX 17 the early voting turnout was “simply incredible” with 1,103 votes cast today. We’re told more than 100 people were in line before the doors opened Saturday.

Early voting runs through November 3. You can find more information on how to find a polling place. here.

For more information on early voting in your county, click here.

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