City polls less busy than in 2016 election
Vast jump in absentee ballots reduces crowds
A slow but steady stream of voters made their way to cast ballots in two precincts at the Farmers Market in downtown Royal Oak on Tuesday.
But with a record number of registered voters in the city casting absentee ballots in this year’s presidential election, in-person turnout was not as high as in the last presidential election four years ago.
With the end of the COVID-19 pandemic nowhere in sight yet, the lighter turnout was unsurprising.
Unlike past elections at the Farmers Market, there were no candidate supporters outside the market with signs passing out campaign literature Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s been steady and very uneventful,” said Judy Davids, a precinct captain, early Tuesday afternoon. “We had 120 voters in the first hour after opening at 7 a.m. This is the kind of turnout we usually see in an off-year election.”
A day earlier people waited in line at City Hall to get absentee
ballots rather than go to the polls. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, a small number of cars were in the rear parking lot outside of the gymnasium at Royal Oak Middle School. In 2016, the same site had a line out the door in the evening hours.
Royal Oak reflected the voting trend nationally.
About 100 million voters across the U.S. had already cast ballots before Tuesday, either by absentee mail-in ballots or in states where in-person early voting at the polls is allowed. Those early votes equal about three- quarters of the total number of votes cast in the 2016 election, according to the New York Times.
Royal Oak’s ballot includes an operational millage renewal for the public school district, and six candidates running for four open seats on the school board. But the main draw to show up at the polls Tuesday in Royal Oak and elsewhere was the presidential election between President Donald Trump and former Vice-President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is ahead in the polls.
Biden supporter and Royal Oak resident Amy Anderson said she felt more comfortable casting her ballot at the polls, in part as an example to her three children and other young people.
“I’d rather be in control of the process” by voting in person, she said. “I was upset in the (2016) election when not enough people turned out to vote.”
Anderson said she voted for the Royal Oak Schools millage renewal.
“It’s important for the kids in the schools,” she said.
The ballot proposal includes a cushion of up to 1.25 mills on the 18-mill non- homestead millage on businesses and second homes to guard against any future Headlee rollbacks. Part of the state’s Headlee amendment rolls back millage tax rates when property values increase by more than the rate of inflation or 5 percent, whichever is less.
The 1.25-mill increase on the ballot proposal would allow the district to keep the non-homestead millage at a steady 18 mills, school officials have said.
Further, the proposal would also restore the hold harmless millage to its 1994 level of no more than 3.4 mills in the event that the millage is affected by a Headlee rollback, so that the millage will continue to generate $851 per student.
Trump supporter Diana Markoff, a 16-year resident, said she is against any proposal that allows for a tax increase. She further objected to four of the six school board candidates who have called for the district to pay more attention to diversity.
“I think it’s about the ability of the teachers to do their jobs and not the color of their skin,” she said.
Markoff said she went to the polls rather than vote by absentee ballot “because I feel my vote is more secure.”
“I’m not afraid of COVID-19,” she said. “I wanted to vote here. I don’t want to lose my country to communism and socialism.”
There are 52,035 registered voters in Royal Oak.
By the end of the business day Monday, City Clerk Melanie Halas said 28,583 absentee ballots had been issued and 25,068 returned.
The number of absentee ballots is significant compared to the 2016 election. That year a total of 34,723 people in Royal Oak residents voted, only 9,024 of them by absentee ballot. Trump got 35 percent of the vote in Royal Oak. while Hillary Clinton got 59 percent and other candidates picked up 6 percent of the vote.