Forty-one percent of voters registered in East Lansing are expected to participate in today’s election, a city official said Monday. The estimate is slightly lower than with projections for voter turnout in Michigan as a whole.
Despite the fact that more than 95 percent of Michigan residents are registered to vote, a state official predicted little more than half of voters actually will cast their ballots.
Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land said in a release she is pleased almost 7.3 million Michigan residents — about 95.5 percent of the population — are registered to vote.
But Land estimated that only about 3.8 million, or 52 percent of registered voters, actually will cast a vote today. Projections are based on studies of absent voter activity, past gubernatorial election turnouts, voter involvement and information from local offices, according to the release.
Secretary of State spokesperson Kelly Chesney was unavailable for comment Monday.
East Lansing City Clerk Nicole Evans said the city could witness a trend similar to the state. Although the estimated rate of voter participation is lower than the number predicted statewide, 41 percent is a significant amount of the voting age population, Evans said.
Some students emphasized the importance of hitting the polls to vote.
“It is important to get your opinion out there,” premedical sophomore Laura Cucchiara said. “We can’t do it alone. We can see change only through someone else by voting.”
Because the major party candidates — Virg Bernero and Rick Snyder — only held one debate, making a decision might be difficult for voters who do not follow election coverage, Cucchiara said.
“I wish they had more,” she said.
In the 2008 presidential election, about 17,000 people were registered to vote in precincts generally catering to students. As of Oct. 7 this year, 11,000 people were registered to vote within the “student” precincts.
In the 2008 election overall, 36,500 total were registered in East Lansing — including campus precincts — and 65 percent of registered voters cast their ballots.
In the 2006 gubernatorial debate, only 29,000 residents were registered to vote. Between 2006 and 2010, the number of registered Michigan voters rose from 7.18 million to 7.28 million.
Evans said the increased number of registered voters during this gubernatorial election could be attributed to more issues facing a normal houshold in the current election than in the previous gubernatorial election in 2006, when Gov. Jennifer Granholm was reelected.
“Many problems are close to home, like the economy,” Evans said.
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