By John Raffel
Correspondent
ALLEGAN – Voting in the presidential primary during the state’s first venture into early voting yielded sparse participation in the county.
“The low turnout set off alarm bells for the budgets of local governments that must staff polls with trained, paid workers during the early voting days,” Allegan County Commission chairman James Storey said. “As of late Thursday afternoon, a county clerk representative said 980 county voters had taken advantage of the early voting days and hours.”
The presidential primary was Tuesday, Feb. 27. A 2022 voter-adopted initiative created nine early voting days for all state and national election days.
One local clerk reported Saturday morning that each vote cast to that point cost an average of $146 due to the costs associated with opening and staffing a voting center. Another put the cost to his local government at $98 per vote.
Regular voting took place on Tuesday Feb 27 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.