Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Voting booths are seen lined up at a precinct in Tamarack City Tuesday.

HOUGHTON — Copper Country voters hit the polls Tuesday for Michigan’s presidential primary and a handful of local ballot issues.

At the Calumet Township Precinct 2 polling place at the Calumet Colosseum, Tom and Janelle Freeman of Calumet Township both cast ballots for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders over rivals Joe Biden and Tulsi Gabbard.

“He’s been pushing for the same things for 60 years, and they’ve always been things that are good, and are still needed,” Janelle Freeman said. “He’s fighting for the right stuff. He’s not just doing it to be president or make money.”

Tom Freeman voted for Sanders despite worries about his electability and fears President Donald Trump could tar him as an extremist.

“He’s pushing forward … he’s the only one thinking about fixing the problems that are really big problems in the country – money in politics, affordable health care,” he said.

At Torch Lake Township Precinct 1, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Hubbell, Phil Storm in Dollar Bay voted for Trump over challenger William Weld. He cited Trump’s optimism, and said his biggest issue in the race is abortion.

“I know he’s doing all he can to change this country,” he said. “I don’t know if he’s going to make abortion illegal, but he’s changing the Supreme Court so they would put an end to abortion.”

Polling places said voting was on par with elections of the past, though with a greater number of absentee votes. The election was the first presidential primary since the passage of Proposal 3, which allowed voters to cast absentee ballots without a reason.

In Hubbell, there had been 108 ballots cast Tuesday to go with 40 absentee by about 1:30 p.m.

Absentee was up a little – “not much, though, because we have so many elderly in the area,” said election worker Jim Hamlett.

At about 2 p.m., Laurium had 133 in-person votes, to go with 96 absentee ballots.

“Years ago, we would have had 25 or 30 (absentee ballots),” said election worker Millie Little. “It’s a considerable increase.”

Through 10 p.m., with 38% of precincts reporting in, President Donald Trump held 93% of the vote in the Republican Primary. In the Democratic Primary, Joe Biden led Bernie Sanders 53% to 40% with 42% of precincts reporting in.

Editor’s note: Results were not available by the time of printing Wednesday. Look for updates as we get them.