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ALPENA -- Election workers on Alpena saw heavy turnout during Tuesday's general election as voters flooded the polls to select their candidates of choice.
In Alpena County, 56.28% of 25,032 registered voters cast ballots, which surpassed the turnout from the 2018 midterm election when 53.14% of registered voters filled out ballots.
Tuesday's election was well behind the 64% turnout in Alpena County during the 2020 presidential election.
Turnout was especially high in Alpena Township Tuesday as 60.5% of the registered voters took to the polls.
Alpena Township Clerk Michele Palevich said things ran smoothly in the township's precincts, with only a brief malfunction on a tabulator slowing the voting process for a spell.
She said the township quickly borrowed one of Alpena County's tabulators, so there was little interruption at the poll.
Palevich said she believes the turnout was attributed to the state ballot issues and the political divide connected to them.
"I think it was the statewide proposals because people were really passionate about them, one way or another," she said.
The township also had a 3-mill tax increase on the ballot for fire department operations that may have increased turnout.
In Alpena, turnout was lower than in the surrounding municipalities. Of the 8,215 registered voters, only 54% filled out ballots. That turnout was the lowest of any municipality in Alpena County.
Alpena City Clerk Anna Soik said the city was able to preprocess absentee ballots, with the blessing of the state, because of its population.
She said her staff processes absentee ballots in the days leading up to the election, but they aren't inserted into the tabulator until election day.
We basically do everything we need to do up until the point to where the ballot is counted," she said. "The votes are not counted until election day though."
Voter turnout in the surrounding counties was also high.
In Presque Isle County, 61.21% of the county's 12,006 voters cast ballots, while 58% of voters came out in Alcona County and 57.15% of the 9,047 registered voters in Montmorency County submitted ballots.