Solid early voter turnout in Ottawa, Streator, Marseilles

The voter turnout in the greater Ottawa area on Tuesday was substantial and steady from having people waiting for the polls to open to a steady stream of voters through mid-afternoon.

According to Marsha Johnston, the Bruce Township clerk and now in her 47th year as an election judge for Bruce 1, people were waiting at 6 a.m. for the doors to open and, she said, “it’s just been steady, steady, steady all day, even one of the precincts that’s never very busy have been very busy today.”

Johnston said the four precincts with polling places in the Streator Knights of Columbus Hall had not only a great turnout of registered voters, but also plenty of new registrations the judges were able to approve for those with the proper forms of identification.

The Streator site had to turn away two potential voters for electioneering, aka entering the polling place with campaign materials on, illegal in all states. Those persons were asked to leave, change clothes and returnedto vote later. They were annoyed, but left without incident.

“It you don’t follow the rules, you don’t get to vote,” Johnston said. “Other than that, it’s been a great turnout, a lot better than we’ve ever had … That’s kind of surprising because there were so many early voters. Luckily it’s not pouring down rain, which you’d expect might keep people away, but they’re coming out, rain or not. They want their vote counted.”

Toward that end, people have been pleasant, cordial and patient, though she did get a vibe from some of the older voters in her precinct.

“The people are tired,” Johnston said. “We have a lot of older people in these precincts and they’re just done, very disgusted … The past eight years, we’ve had issues that we’ve never had before, so this is no big deal. I think we all knew what was going to happen, but it’s good. We’re glad people are out voting for whoever they feel is the best candidate.”

At the Rutland 3 precinct in Marseilles City Hall, they had received about 300 of the 1,000 plus registered voters by around 2:30 p.m. Election judge Darin DeGrush said he’d expected to see in the neighborhood of 600 come in by the time the poll close at 7 p.m.

That includes a number of new voters to be signed up and same-day registrations, but even those have gone off without a hitch.

“The turnout has been excellent,” DeGrush said. “It’s been steady, a few times with two or three people out the door, but those were when we had three same-day registrations in a row. That just slows things down a little, but it’s all gone very smoothly.”

Added Rutland 3 election judge Charlotte Caputo, “Everyone has been very congenial and willing to wait. Everyone has been happy-go-lucky and saying thank you for our volunteering to do this. That’s always nice.”

That was virtually the same situation at Ottawa 1, one of six precincts polling at the Knights River’s Edge Events Center at 401 W. Main St. It, too, had received roughly 30% turnout as of about 3:30 p.m., though there were rumors going around that there would be a rush of new voters to register after 5 p.m.

“Even with the rain, everyone seems in a good mood,” said Darcy DeLong, who had been a judge two years ago and is now again after retuning to Ottawa. “We’ve been pretty busy all day, direction people which precinct to go to … and there’s been a little confusion, with people moving into a new precinct or town.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s upbeat, but I would definitely say it’s very positive, not a lot of negative,” Ottawa 1 election judge Mike Jaeger said. “It’s been nothing unusual, just a very nice, friendly, community sort of atmosphere, people being pleasant to one another. It’s typical Ottawa.”