Michigan voters were lined up in East Lansing as polls closed, waiting to cast ballots
EAST LANSING — Young voters packed the hallways of East Lansing City Hall on Tuesday, hunching to fill out paperwork that will allow them to register and vote in Michigan's primary election.
For some, the wait lasted past the official close of polls at 8 p.m., but all who were in the line at that time were told they would be permitted to vote.
MSU students Emily Whiteman from Toledo and Emma Way from Kalamazoo say they waited nearly 4 hours to vote after getting in line to register at 5:30 p.m. Both young women voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders, who won Michigan's primary four years ago in part on the strength of young voters.
They characterized the atmosphere during the wait as "excited to hang out and have the experience" and "kind of miserable, but definitely worth it for everybody."
That young voter support may not have been enough for Sanders this year, with the Associated Press and other outlets calling Michigan for Joe Biden shortly after 9 p.m.
Timothy Boyd, an 18-year-old Michigan State University student, joined the line shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday for his first time registering and voting.
In the last presidential primary in 2016, he would have been too late. Tuesday is the first major test of changes made to Michigan's election law, through a ballot measure passed in 2018, which allow voters to register up to and on the day of an election.
That's a good thing, Boyd said. Giving people more opportunities to register and vote means the results of an election will more accurately reflect what Americans believe.
"A lot of people, like me, wait until the last second to do things," he said. "Now they get the opportunity to get out and vote."
Boyd was among the thousands of Michigan residents who registered to vote Tuesday, the day Michigan held its presidential primary election. Voters who decide to cut it close with same-day registration have to go to their municipal clerk's office, where they can vote with an absentee ballot or get a receipt to take to a polling place.
As of 4:30 p.m., 7,198 Michigan residents had registered to vote on Tuesday, the Secretary of State's Office reported.
Clerks' offices in Michigan's college towns, specifically East Lansing and Ann Arbor, were busy, Michigan Secretary of State spokesperson Jake Rollow said.
"That's what we expected because as we saw in 2019," he said. "Especially when it gets down to the last 14 days, usually a lot of young people come out and register."
A representative for the East Lansing city clerk said Tuesday night the office did yet have a number to give out on same-day voter registrations.
Sam Inglot, deputy director of the liberal advocacy organization Progress Michigan, was in East Lansing monitoring the voting process. He said more efforts are needed to make sure voters understand their expanded options for getting and casting absentee ballots in advance of election day.
It took about an hour for Michigan State University students Amillian Sanders, 18, and Jada Jordan, 19, to vote, they said as they left City Hall at about 4 p.m. Both had been registered in Detroit and updated with their East Lansing addresses, and both wanted to represent African American voters at the polls.
The process was smooth and the wait was worth it, Sanders said.
"I know there's a lot of people who don't get out to register [in time]," she said.
Jennifer Aguilar, a 19-year-old MSU student, said it took her about 50 minutes to register on Tuesday with an updated East Lansing address. She took a registration receipt to her polling place on campus, where she would vote that afternoon.
"I think it's worth it, putting in the work," she said.
Contact Carol Thompson at (517) 377-1018 or ckthompson@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @thompsoncarolk.
