Election officials report low voter turnout

Voters cast their ballot at the Monroe Family YMCA in Monroe, Mich.

Voting is in progress today at several special elections in northwest Ohio and in primary races in Michigan.

Several election officials said turnout is low at polling locations in Ohio, and Michigan officials said they did not yet have voter turnout estimates.

Turnout in the five precincts in Lucas County voting on the Swanton Schools levy was 2.6 percent of voters — 49 voters out of 1,885 — earlier this morning, said Meghan Gallagher, director of the Lucas County Board of Elections.

“It’s very slow,” said Barbara Tuckerman, deputy director of the Sandusky County Board of Elections. Voters there are casting ballots on levies in the Clyde-Green Springs and Margaretta schools.

Turnout is also low in Fulton County, said Melanie Gilders, director of the Fulton County Board of Elections, where a levy for Swanton Schools and fire services in the Village of Delta are on the ballot.

In Wood County, where voters are deciding on a levy for Lake Local Schools, several questions arose about voters wearing school apparel into the polling place, said Board of Elections Director Terry Burton. Polling places must be free of partisan signs or campaign literature.

No one was turned away or kept from voting and the issue was resolved by 9:30 a.m., said Mr. Burton.

Poll workers had asked anyone in school apparel to cover it or turn it inside out, he said. The board then sought an opinion from the Ohio Secretary of State’s office, which ruled the school apparel was permissible as it did not state “vote for” or “vote against.”

No problems were reported in Monroe County, Michigan, said Clerk Sharon Lemaster, though an estimate on voter turnout was not available.