Good Voting Turnout In Plymouth For Elections 2012

As voting comes to a close, it looks like Plymouth's voting turnout could be above the state average, again.

"Before the day started and the polls opened today we had about 44,000 registered voters," said Plymouth City Clerk Sandy Engdahl. "Absentee voting accounts for about 14 percent of our registered voters."

To give an idea of the great voter turnout counted so far, by 11 a.m. one precinct had 40 percent of its registered voters in. By 4 p.m. 28,668 votes were cast in Plymouth's 23 total precincts. By 11 a.m. 16,510 had voted.

"We ran out of ballots at Plymouth Covenant Church and had to run some over this evening," Engdahl said at about 7 p.m., an hour before polls closed.

About 5,000 to 7,000 people will be registering to vote today and during the last presidential election in 2008 it ended up being about 8,000 voters who registered on Election Day.

"During presidential election yeras we pass the state average on voter turnout," Engdahl said. "We do pretty good each year and the numbers will prove that."

A tweet from Aaron Klemz mentioned voting in Plymouth, " My brother reports that in Plymouth, an election judge was going down the line asking for ID 'to make things easier.'" 

Engdahl said though she could not confirm hearing about this incident happening, she said that most people will show their ID even when not required in order to  help confirm who they are and make it easier to find them on the registered voter list.

"It helps finding the right person like if there is more than one Steven Smith in the same precinct to make sure they get the right one and helps with finding names that may be spelled differently and helps lines go quicker," she said.

Lines were out the door at several polling places right away in the morning at several locations, Engdahl said.

"We also get many people who want us to check their ID anyway, even if it's not required because they're already registered," she said. "The long lines returned later this evening as well, but that is also typical."

(Editor's Note: You can see voter turnout so far in Plymouth in the pdf attached as well as voter turnout history from the city's website.)