VOTERS HEAD TO CITY POLLS IN BIG NUMBERS
‘I just hope that everybody accepts the election results’
Royal Oak voters in small but steady lines at the Farmers Market came with their ID to get their ballots Tuesday morning.
Some came alone, others showed up with children or other relatives and friends. But those willing to talk also carried election hopes and beliefs when they showed up.
“I just hope that everybody accepts the election results and they don’t start saying there’s some big conspiracy,” said Dylan Nance.
About 75 feet away sat Robert Goffee, a Michigan Republican Party election challenger and Walled Lake resident.
Goffee said he was watching for any voters who might be unregistered, under age, a non- resident or not a U.S. citizen.
“I’m looking for people who shouldn’t be voting,” he said. “I’m here to make sure this is run as an honest election.”
He hadn’t found any such people Tuesday as noon approached while he sat behind poll workers checking voters in.
Goffee was sure of one thing in the 2020 presidential election.
“Without a doubt, I think it was rigged,” he said. “All across the country … I think people are basically ignorant and they vote motivated by one issue. What about crime, inflation and border problems? I hope Republicans wipe the slate clean of every Democrat on the ballot.”
After he cast his ballot Tuesday, resident Max Bien reflected on the extremism he said he sees among many Republican leaders and voters.
“As soon as you lose trust in our institutional systems everything is going to fall
apart,” Bien said.
Korean War veteran Jack Dawson has lived in Royal Oak for 81 years. On his ballot he cast votes Tuesday supporting two city millage requests that will fund city parks and the animal shelter, and senior services, as well as a millage renewal for Royal Oak Schools sinking fund to maintain buildings.
Dawson said he wishes political campaigning could be limited to five or six months before an election.
“It’s getting to a point you can’t believe what you see on TV,” he said. “A lot of times people just hear what they want to hear.”
At the Farmers Market, where those in two Royal Oak precincts cast ballots, there was a steady stream of voters Tuesday.
“We expect there are big numbers of people who want to vote in person,” said Judy Davids, an election worker and Royal Oak city spokesperson.
Another resident, Carol Hennessey, said Tuesday’s election was the busiest she has seen in the decade she has been a poll worker.
The city clerk said earlier Royal Oak voter requests for absentee ballots are double what they were in the last midterm election in 2018.
Complete election results for all of Oakland County are expected to likely take until early Wednesday, while total state and national results may take days in some areas.