Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties

Gogebic voter turnout at 53 percent

By RICHARD JENKINS

[email protected]

More than half of Gogebic County’s eligible voters participated in Tuesday’s election, with initial figures released by Clerk Gerry Pelissero indicating turnout was at 53.6 percent.

According to the numbers, 7,485 of the 13,953 registered voters cast ballots in the election.

Wakefield Township had the highest percentage of participation of the county’s municipalities, at 66.1 percent of the 266 voters participating.

The city of Ironwood had the lowest participation, with 48.5 percent of registered voters casting ballots. The city’s Precinct 2 was the lowest participating precinct in the county, with only 927 of the 2,057 voters — or 45 percent — of registered voters making it to the polls.

Unofficial returns reported by the Associated Press show 4.8 million Michigan residents voted Tuesday, roughly 65 percent of the state’s voting-age population.

This is roughly the same turnout as the 2012 election, according to the AP, but lower than 2008, when over 5 million people cast ballots.

While Iron County, Wis., turnout results weren’t available Wednesday, the AP reports Wisconsin’s turnout was around 2.9 million voters — or 66 percent of the voting age population.

This was below the state’s predicted turnout of 69 percent and the lowest turnout in a presidential year since 1996.