OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — The first day of early voting draws massive crowds across the state. Michigan is a critical state from a voting standpoint, and there were long lines outside polling places on Saturday.

One person described waiting in line for nearly three hours to vote.

“I think it’s really rewarding to see people wanting to participate at this level. I mean, our entire team has worked very, very hard, very diligently on the early voting process, and it’s just great to see the participation, the enthusiasm to be able to participate in it, “said the county clerk from Ottawa, Justin Roebuck.

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His office also shared early voting numbers for the primary election. In one day, Ottawa County nearly passed the entire week of early voting in August.

“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,” the Ottawa County Clerk’s Office shared 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, nearly tripling in one day the number of voters who cast ballots during the entire early voting period 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.

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

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.

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