Election Day information for voters

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief

Tuesday, Nov. 5 will be your final opportunity to vote in the 2024 General Election. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Oceana County Press will report on unofficial results when they become available to us from the Oceana County Clerk’s Office.

OCP’s concentration will be to report the results of local races first with totals for national and state elections reported once all information is received. Oceana County Clerk Amy Anderson said the Oceana County Board of Canvassers will meet at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 6 in the Oceana County Board of Commissioners Room in the courthouse. It is then scheduled to meet again on Friday, Nov. 8 at 9 a.m., and Tuesday, Nov. 12 at 1 p.m. Other meetings will be scheduled as needed.

View Your Ballot. Naturally, the headlining race is the U.S. presidential race but there are many more national, state, and local races happening along with some local ballot issues. To see what your ballot is going to look like, visit the Michigan Secretary of State’s website Michigan Voter Information Center here. This is a great resource to see exactly what is on your ballot.

Absentee Voting: If you are voting absentee and have not turned in your ballot yet, you have until 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5 to turn it into your city or township clerk. You have gone beyond the point of mailing your absentee ballot. Those not received at 8 p.m. Tuesday will not be counted. The Michigan Secretary of State suggested mailing the ballot within two weeks of election day and recommended handing in the ballot. You may bring the ballot to the polling place where you would normally vote in person. You can even place it into the tabulating machine yourself if you would like.

If you have already voted by absentee it is too late to change an absentee ballot. That would have had to have been done by the second Friday before the election. If you have not turned in your ballot yet, however, you may spoil your ballot in person at the clerk’s office until 4 p.m. today. You may also surrender your ballot or sign a statement stating that the ballot was lost or destroyed and then you may vote in person on election day.

Write-In Voting: If you are going to vote write in, you must fill in the oval next to the blank line, as you would voting for a registered candidate, and then you must print the candidate’s name in line provided. Make every effort possible to spell the name correctly, but any variation of the name spelling for that candidate is allowed. Only declared write-in candidates will receive the votes.

While the number of write-in votes will be released with the unofficial results, the actual candidates will not be listed until after the votes are certified. See below for more information.

Polling Place Conduct. A clerk, a member of the clerk’s staff, and/or an election inspector is empowered to ask a person engaging in any of the below conduct to leave the voting location and, if the person refuses to leave, request that law enforcement remove the person from the voting location.

• Michigan election inspectors have the “full authority to maintain peace, regularity, and order” in the polling place, and to “enforce obedience to their lawful commands during any primary or election and during the canvass of the votes after the poll is closed.”
• Local clerks and their staff have full authority to issue instructions and direction to anyone present in the polling place, and those persons are required to obey all lawful instructions or directions issued by the clerk or their staff. In particular, clerks and their staff have full authority to instruct and direct election inspectors.

Campaigning. Michigan law prohibits campaigning within 100 feet of any building entrance used by voters to enter a polling place. Doing so is a misdemeanor.

Final Results, Certification. Each of the 83 boards of county canvassers in the State of Michigan is currently composed of two Republican members and two Democratic members, appointed by the county board of commissioners to four year terms. The board members are responsible for canvassing the votes cast within the county they serve. The board members certify elections for all local, countywide and district offices which are contained entirely within the county they serve.

List of Oceana County polling locations:

Benona Township, 7169 W. Baker Rd.

Claybanks Township, 7577 W. Cleveland Rd.

Colfax Township, 5594 N. 192nd Ave.

Crystal Township, 1499 E. Hammett Rd.

Elbridge Township, 2266 E. Polk Rd.

Ferry Township, 3222 Green St.

Golden Township, 5527 W. Fox Rd.

Grant Township, 7140 S. Oceana Dr.

Greenwood Township, 5589 S. 200th Ave.

Hart Township, 3437 W. Polk Rd.

Leavitt Township, 2401 N. 184th Ave.

Newfield Township, 3890 S. 198th Ave.

Otto Township, 5458 S. 128th Ave.

Pentwater Township, 500 N. Hancock St.

Shelby Township, 204 N. Michigan Ave.

Weare Township, 6506 N. Oceana Dr.

City of Hart, 407 State St.

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