News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Alpena Clerk Anna Soik rearranges some election gear on Wednesday that was used during Tuesday’s election in the city. Soik said more people voted with absentee ballots than went to the polls.

ALPENA — More people voted via absentee ballot than in person during Tuesday’s election in Alpena, city officials say.

A pair of seats on the Alpena Municipal Council were up for grabs, with incumbent Cindy Johnson and Karol Walchak coming out on top of the field of five candidates running for the positions.

According to Alpena Clerk Anna Soik, 1,478 people voted in the election, which is 17% of registered voters in the city. Of those, 58%, or 861 people, submitted their selections for council on absentee ballots.

Only 617 people voted in person at the polling places in the city.

Early and absentee voting has been on the rise for several years nationwide and increased in last year’s presidential election when millions of people voted without going to the polls due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Soik said in 2019 — the last time council members were up for election — there was a 15% turnout, but only 329 absentee ballots were returned. She said she believes voting absentee is becoming popular because it is convenient, and also allows voters to examine the races and proposals on the ballot and research them at home.

“It has really gained a lot of steam since 2018, when people voted to allow no-reason absentee voting. Since that point it has steadily increased since,” Soik said.

The more absentee voters there are however, the more expense there is for the city. Soik said a lot of time is dedicated to mailing out applications and ballots, opening them when they are returned, and processing them accurately. That means more labor costs because employees work more hours during the process.

“It is more work on our part. There is a lot that goes into putting together an absentee ballot and that all comes with a cost,” she said. “You have the cost of labor and postage, so it is definitely not cheap, but I think it is convenient for the voter.”

Soik said of the absentee ballots submitted to the city for the council candidates, 83% were by people 60 years old or older, and women in that age group utilized absentee voting the most by submitting 454 ballots. She said only one person from the age group of 18 years old to 21 years old submitted an absentee ballot and the number of absentee ballots increased as the age groups got older.

“Our largest voting demographic is always women aged 60-plus going back and that is going back every election going back many years,” Soik said. “I guess if somebody is campaigning, that is your target group right there.”

If more people vote via absentee, Soik said there may be future elections where the city doesn’t need as many workers at the polling places, which will help offset the expenses associated with issuing and processing the absentee ballots.

She said by statute, there always needs to be three election workers, but sometimes there are five, and when few people are voting in-person, like Tuesday, fewer may have been needed.

Soik added that it is unlikely the precincts can be merged or tweaked because they are established by population and it would take a significant drop in people living in the city to change the current precincts or reduce the amount of polling places.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpenanews.com.