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Voter turnout high in divisive midterm election

The most recent election cycle brought a good number of voters out to the polls Tuesday, and that’s a trend we hope continues in the coming years.

First off, we’d like to thank the many poll workers and volunteers who spent their Tuesday helping at the ballot boxes, and the countless government employees across the state who compiled all the results. The statistics shown that those workers had their hands full.

Compared with the November 2014 midterm election, nearly 8,000 more Marquette County residents cast their ballots at Tuesday’s polls, when the county’s overall voter turnout reached more than 58 percent.

Marquette County Clerk Linda Talsma said it’s “great to see people of all ages becoming interested in taking the time to vote on important issues.”

All across Michigan, poll workers saw a similar increase in the number of ballots being submitted.

More than 4.3 million voters cast ballots statewide on Tuesday, the highest turnout rate in 56 years, according to an Associated Press article.

The increase in the number of voters could be attributed to the three proposals included on the ballot, all of which passed, but we’re hoping it’s just a growing political awareness by more people, when we consider the stronger numbers recorded at the August primary election.

While primary elections generally have lower voter turnouts, a record 2.2 million Michiganders took part in the August primary, surpassing the state’s 1.7 million record turnout during the 2002 primary, according to the Michigan Secretary of State’s website.

We’ve always believed that voting is one of the most important things we can do to ensure the the democratic process of our government remains intact, and that principle is all the more critical in these current times of political division.

Whether you consider yourself a Republican or a Democrat, or neither, participating in that process is one of the best ways to let our legislators know that they have our support, and that we’re watching what they do with their time in office.

Keep this in mind next year when the political ads start popping up, because before you know it, politicians will be back on the campaign trail.

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