Tagged: vote

By Rick Pluta

The candidates are waiting for the votes to be counted. Republican candidate for governor Rick Snyder says if he is elected he will not wait to begin planning for his administration. Snyder says he intends to bring a sense of "crisis" to Lansing:

People in northern states may be cold, but they seem to vote in higher numbers than in some other states.

In the 2008 election, these states had the highest turnout rates from their voting eligible population according to Michael McDonald's United States Elections Project:

We've gathered up all the county election results sites in our listening area.

Click here to find your local election results

It's Election Day. Voters in Michigan are set to choose many new candidates for top offices.

Voters are set to choose a new governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and attorney general. Voters will also choose two state Supreme Court nominees. All of Michigan's fifteen U.S. Congressional seats are also up for election, as well as seats for the state Senate and House.

Michigan will have at least 4 freshman members of Congress after November’s general election.

But all that new blood means Michigan is losing something special in Washington...seniority.

By January,  Republicans Pete Hoekstra and Vern Ehlers, and Democrats Bart Stupak and Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick will have packed up and moved out of their congressional offices in Washington. 

Hoekstra, Ehlers and Stupak voluntarily retired. Cheeks-Kilpatrick lost her party’s August primary.

The Tea Party Express roadshow is making several stops today in Michigan in hope of energizing conservative voters before next week’s election.

 About 500 people crowded a vacant lot in downtown Jackson for the event which was part political rally and part fundraiser.

The tea party vote could be critical in several close congressional and state legislative races next week.

Tea Party Express chairwoman Amy Kramer says establishment Republicans and Democrats are underestimating the movement.  

Voters in the 7th congressional district will have two familiar choices on the ballot in November.  They faced each other before.  This time the result may be different.

 When you are congressman running for re-election you walk in a lot of parades.  Democrat Mark Schauer spent a recent September day walking in Charlotte’s Frontier Days parade.   The crowd lining the parade route was polite,  but several people like Liz Goble were not happy to see Mark Schauer. 

"I definitely wasn’t happy when he was voted in.  I will be happy to see him go," says Goble. 

Here are some numbers for you from the Michigan Secretary of State's office.

• 95.5% - percent of the voting age population in Michigan registered to vote
• 7.28 million people registered - a record for a Michigan gubernatorial election
• 7.40 million people - the highest number of registered voters Michigan has ever seen (2008 presidential election)

But just because people are registered to vote doesn't mean they will.