The doors to the city clerk’s office are closed on Fridays this month to give city clerk Jackie Beaudry and her staff time to prepare for the November 8 presidential election. On the job since 2005, Beaudry expects a huge turnout–she notes that in 2008, almost 70 percent of registered Washtenaw County voters cast ballots. The clerk’s office closed on Fridays before that election and again in 2012.
On the visitor-free Fridays, Beaudry and her five employees will concentrate on processing new voter registrations and mailing our absentee ballots. By mid-September, they’d already received 3,200 requests for absentee ballots, and Beaudry ultimately expects the absentee vote to be between 12,000 and 15,000. The city has about 94,000 registered voters, and the clerk says she’s noticed a “definite increase” in absentee ballots over the past decade (to vote absentee, voters must be over sixty, out of town, or physically disabled).
The office will return to regular Friday hours three days after the election, but don’t be surprised if the staff looks a little bleary-eyed. On November 8, they will be on the job from 6 a.m. until the last precinct finishes counting its votes, which may be midnight or even later. But Election Day, though long, “brings out so much energy and enthusiasm,” says Beaudry, “We don’t think how long the day is.”
