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Early voting underway

Polls open until Sunday

HANCOCK -- Early voting for this year's primary election is underway thru Aug. 2 at HOCO Arena in Hancock. Registered voters in Houghton County can vote early from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Sunday. County Clerk Jennifer Kelly said there are many benefits to voting early at HOCO.

"It's very accessible to anybody, it's ADA-compliant," she said. "We definitely have enough voting spaces for quite a few people to be in here at one time."

Aside from skipping the long line on election day, the extensive, nine-day early voting window -- which began Saturday -- gives Houghton County residents a wide net of chances to cast their ballot. Kelly said she hopes people take advantage of the opportunity.

"The cost of early voting is really big -- and the voters have passed this -- which is now financially on the city and township clerks throughout the State of Michigan," she said. "My hope is we're going to see a lot more people coming in, 'cause in two days time we've only had 52 (ballots cast)."

Other counties in the region are taking part in the statewide effort to make voting more accessible. In Keweenaw County, early voting over the weekend at Eagle Harbor Township Hall had not been very active. County Clerk Julie Carlson said only four ballots have been cast as of Monday morning.

"In November of 2024 we had a little bit of more people, but August of 2024 was also very small like now," she said. "It's a long time for people to sit there from nine to five -- yesterday there was nobody."

Ontonagon and Baraga Counties are holding early voting thru Sunday as well. Baraga County's hours are 8 a.m. thru 4 p.m. at the L'Anse Township Hall. Ontonagon County's is 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. at the Ontonagon Township Library.

Those who vote early can also hand in their absentee ballots at HOCO. Voters would just need to fill out a form and feed their ballot into the tabulator. Kelly said there is a system in place to make sure absentee voters can still come in for early voting, if they choose to do so.

"They can change from an absentee voter to an in-person voter -- go through the process," she said. "The election workers will verify that the ballot stub number matches what is in the state voter system and give them their ballot in a secrecy sleeve, and then they can go ahead and tabulate it here in early voting."

This year, HOCO Arena is the new early voting site. Hancock City Manager Mary Babcock said she was excited for the prospects early voting would bring to the public facility.

"It's a great opportunity for us to be able to use the HOCO Arena in the summer for a public purpose," she said.

Previously, early voting for the primary and general elections was held at the City of Houghton Offices.

Looking ahead to the general election, Kelly said she will have one last training session with election workers before Nov. 3.

"If anybody is interested, they should contact their city and township clerk," she said. "I believe I am set for workers for the early voting."

For more information on early voting, check your county's website or the State of Michigan's elections page.