- In 2022, some voters at Michigan State University waited for hours to cast their ballot in the Midterm Election.
- In preparation for this year's Presidential Election, East Lansing City Clerk Marie Wicks says they're encouraging voters to cast their ballot early, and make sure they know their precinct if they're voting on Election Day.
- Video shows Wicks sharing some of the steps the city is taking to try and prevent long lines during this year's election.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
Would you rather start waiting back here because of a long line or would you rather be able to walk right in?
I'm your MSU Neighborhood Reporter Colin Jankowski. With Election Day coming up, we're asking how election officials are trying to prevent scenes like this that we saw on campus in the 2022 election.
The campus helps tell the story of the season as leaves change color, and this season includes a presidential election. And the question is, are students willing to wait as long as some did two years ago?
"I'd say two to three hours," Jane Toner said.
"Only for like an hour or two," Turk Hashem said.
The wait in 2022, was nearly four hours for some students.
So what is the City of East Lansing doing differently this year?
For starters, an early voting center for East Lansing Voters opened Monday inside the Communication Arts and Sciences building on campus, which City Clerk Marie Wicks says her office has been encouraging residents to use.
"For 14 days, students can register to vote, obtain a ballot, and feed it through the tabulator," Wicks said.
An issue Wicks says her office ran into two years ago; voters were in the wrong place on election day and clogged up the lines. She says they've assembled workers to try and catch that problem ahead of time.
"These folks are going to be going through the lines students line up, and making sure that they're in the right place," Wicks said. "So if somebody shows up to the Communication Arts building on Election Day, and they're registered to vote in, let's say precinct 15, they'll be directed to go to IM West."
Wicks says it's important that students, especially those living off campus, know where their polling location is, because it may not be on campus. You can check your registration and find your polling location here.
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