By Ilsa Minor

iminor@dailypress.net

ESCANABA — Delta County joined in a red wave that swept the nation Tuesday, with the majority of residents casting votes for Donald Trump (R) to serve as the next U.S. president.

Of the 21,615 ballots cast Tuesday, 21,482 (99.38%) included a vote for who should serve as the next president of the United States. Trump received 13,800 of those votes (64.17%), while Kamala Harris (D) received 7,355 votes (34.20%).

Third party candidates rounded out the pack, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who appeared in Michigan as the Natural Law Party candidate but in other states appeared as an independent — receiving 125 votes (.58%); Libertarian Chase Oliver receiving 93 votes (.43%); Green Party Candidate Jill Stein receiving 52 votes (.24%); U.S. Tax Payers Candidate Randall Terry receiving 27 votes (.13%); Cornel West (no party affiliation) receiving 20 votes (.09%); and Joseph Kishore (no party affiliation) receiving 10 votes (.05%). An additional 24 votes were for write-in candidates.

Information about the number of votes cast for any particular candidate using absentee votes in Delta County was not immediately known Tuesday, as only Escanaba, Gladstone, Escanaba Township, and Wells Township had separate absentee vote counting boards to manage absentee ballots. All other communities included their absentee ballots as part of their regular election night count when reporting to the county’s Enhanced Voting dashboard.

However, in jurisdictions where AV counting boards existed, voters who cast their vote absentee were slightly more likely to support Harris than Trump. In those four jurisdictions, Harris received 2,763 votes (52% of 5,289 AV counting board votes cast in the presidential race in Delta County) to Trump’s 2,434 votes (46%).

Third party candidates were also represented in available absentee voting data, but at levels more consistent with their individual rankings. Kennedy had 36 votes, Oliver had 21, Stein had 11, Terry and West each had 8, and Kishore had 2. Six write-in votes were cast absentee in the four jurisdictions.

What may be surprising to some voters is the amount of support Trump received during the nine-day early voting period, which brought all participating Delta County voters to the Wells Township Hall. Trump received 3,249 votes (78.6%) from the county’s early voters, compared to Harris’ 859 votes (21%).

Political messaging from Trump and his staff that began around the time of the 2020 presidential election urged voters not to vote absentee or early. The push was part of a broader narrative by Trump’s campaign that the 2020 election had been “stolen” from Trump by liberal bad actors. However, as the 2024 election drew near, much of that rhetoric shifted, urging voters to take to the polls early to ensure their votes were counted.

Locally, the push for election day-only voting has continued to be espoused by Republican figures, such as Delta County Republican Party Chair Bonnie Hokkala, who has repeatedly argued for a single day of voting and hand-counted paper ballots at Delta County Board of Commissioners meetings. Hokkala also served as a Republican member of the Delta County Board of Canvassers, but resigned from the board after voting against certifying the May 7 Board of Commissioners recall election — a move she said was due in part to a hand-count of ballots prior to the certification not taking place.

Hand counts prior to election certification are not legal in Michigan.

While it is impossible to know how many people who voted for president on election day held similar views, it is clear that in-person, day-of voting was the most popular option in Delta County. A total of 21,615 Delta County residents voted Tuesday, with 4,141 voting early in Wells (19.16%) and 7,452 voting absentee (34.48%), leaving 10,022 in-person, day of votes (46.37%) to make up the remainder of votes cast.

Results published on the Enhanced Voting website for Delta County included all absentee ballots in jurisdictions that did not have separate AV counting boards in the data for election day voting. If absentee ballots submitted across the county followed the same trend towards Harris as absentee ballots submitted in areas with AV counting boards, then Trump may have had a greater portion of the in-person, day-of votes than is reflected by Enhanced Voting. According to the site, Trump received 8,117 votes and Harris received 3,733.