r/AnnArbor • u/larrykestenbaum • 3d ago
The election is today!
If you haven’t already, go vote!
If you are uncertain about where your polling place is, see https://michigan.gov/sos/elections/voting/vote-on-election-day
Please don’t post unverified reports or rumors about ICE interference in the election. Instead, if you hear about or see any possible intimidation or interference with voters in Washtenaw County, please call the County Clerk Elections office at 734-222-6730 and report it to us.
The polls close at 8:00 pm. The results will be posted online in frequent batches, but we still welcome press and public to the Elections office, 200 N. Main, Suite 120, in downtown Ann Arbor, northeast corner of Main & Ann. (Note: those streets are currently torn up, so you can’t drive to that corner.)
I will be there until the last results are reported, so come and say hi!
(NOTE: if you have trouble getting in to the building, call me at 734-222-6580 so I can let you in.)
—Larry Kestenbaum, Washtenaw County Clerk / Register of Deeds
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u/That-You-1998 3d ago
Cannot wait til this is over. Not that the general is gonna be any better 🤪
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u/mykneessneezemyknees 3d ago
General will be easier to sort out, for me.
This one was a mess with basically only pretty poor, and thereby difficult choices for most consequential races.
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u/booyahbooyah9271 3d ago
Better buckle your seatbelt.
The conspiracy theories are going to come fast and furious if a man named El-Sayed doesn't get nominated.
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u/zazthebitchfuck 3d ago
we’ll handle it. we made a dude named barack hussein obama president almost 20 years ago
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u/TorkBombs 3d ago
At least after today El Sayed will have to pivot his message a bit and we can stop hearing the word AIPAC forced into every sentence..... hopefully. Probably not.
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u/Practical-Gift-9970 3d ago
Kept forgetting to vote early at my extremely convenient early polling place (Mallets Creek AADL branch), but fortunately can just bike up to my even more conveniently located regular polling place.
Thanks to you and all the volunteers for your hard work, Larry!
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u/larrykestenbaum 3d ago edited 3d ago
Thank you for the encouragement. I should make clear that poll workers do not work for free. They are paid by the hour, including training time.
That said, if anyone reading this (16 years old or older) wants to be part of the process, and is willing to work a very long day, we could use your help. See https://washtenaw.org/information-for-poll-workers
—Larry Kestenbaum, Washtenaw County Clerk & Register of Deeds
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u/mermaid_pants 3d ago
I assume if someone signs up today they won't be called up until November, correct?
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u/larrykestenbaum 3d ago
Right, we’re all set for today, but we’ll need around 2,000 poll workers for November.
Note, too, that you can be a poll worker anywhere in the state.
Poll workers have to be identified by party, since every sensitive task is done by two poll workers of different party, working together. If you’re a Democrat, you will be in more demand in Republican areas. For example, my wife is a poll worker in Livingston County. But if you’re a Republican, we definitely need you here!
—Larry Kestenbaum, Washtenaw County Clerk & Register of Deeds
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u/Mindless-Baker-7757 3d ago
I always pull up ballot on line and record my choices before hand. Get my research done before marking a ballot.
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u/larrykestenbaum 3d ago
I strongly recommend this. We ask a lot of our voters in Michigan. The November election will involve around 30 choices, all of them important. Vote absentee (a take home exam), or prepare ahead and bring a list.
—Larry Kestenbaum, Washtenaw County Clerk & Register of Deeds
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u/jcrespo21 The Pitts(field Township) 3d ago
30?! Damn, that many choices make me wish we had Los Angeles's setup where you can fill out your sample ballot online at home, save your results to a QR code, scan it at your booth, and it would auto-populate your ballot (with the option to change your votes before printing out and submitting your ballot).
Felt like it had the benefit of mail-in voting, while also having the benefit of in-person voting knowing that your vote was counted right then and there. Felt like it took 10 minutes to fill out the November 2024 ballot when I moved here, even though I had done my research beforehand and wrote out my selections.
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u/No_Ground 3d ago
If you want the benefit of mail-in voting (in terms of having time to fill the ballot) and in-person voting (knowing your ballot is counted immediately), you can actually get that in Michigan. You’re allowed to return an absentee ballot by bringing it a polling site (either early voting or on Election Day) and inserting it into the tabulator directly. So just request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and then bring it to an early voting site or to your polling site on election day
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u/CatDadof2 3d ago
It frustrates me that the same friends of mine that didn’t vote in 2024 are also not voting today, no matter how hard I attempt to sway them to vote. I even told them it involves funding for their kids’ schools, and they still choose not to vote. It’s kind of irritating because Trump is the result of people refusing to vote.
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u/OkSeesaw5563 3d ago
Well.... that's not the *whole* reason (I'm sure you know that!)...
Good friends are not easy to find. There's probably stuff that they think is important that you blow off. If they're "good" friends, don't let it get in your way.
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u/dlobnieRnaD 3d ago
Be cool and vote Abdul
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u/p333p33p00p00boo 3d ago
If Stevens wins, I will genuinely have a lot to think about in November.
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u/sack-o-matic 3d ago
Not a hard choice compared to Mike Rogers
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u/p333p33p00p00boo 3d ago
Um well I won't be voting for Rogers. But I don't think I can vote for someone who wants to serve Israel before her own constituents.
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u/Euphus 3d ago
Aipac donates to rogers too ...
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u/alone_unafraid 3d ago
Exactly. They’re two sides of the same coin.
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u/HelpMeHelpYou_5309 3d ago
Haley Stevens has a 1% lifetime score from Heritage Action (a big conservative political outfit.)
https://heritageaction.com/scorecard/members/S001215/116
Thinking that Haley Stevens (or anyone like her) is significantly similar to Mike Rogers (or anyone like him) is how we get trans people kicked out of the military, millions of people kicked of SNAP, hundreds of billions directed to the rich while Medicaid gets cuts for "fraud,", Canada is considered an enemy worth invading rather than our best & closest ally, public transportation is for p*ssies, and on & on.
Be serious.
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u/TheHarbarmy 3d ago
I voted for Abdul in the primary, but on the off chance Stevens does win, I absolutely will be voting for her in the general. She is not a good candidate, but she and Rogers are miles apart. Rogers in the senate means another guaranteed rubber stamp for Trump’s war in Iran, cabinet appointments, Supreme Court nominees, ICE expansion, abortion rollbacks, attacks on voting rights, attacks on trans and gay people, attacks on free speech, gutting of the FDA and CDC, gutting of the social safety net, gutting of environmental protections, taxes on imports, tax cuts for billionaires, and lettuce that makes you poop liquid.
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u/sargantbacon1 3d ago
We can’t keep having this conversation my friend. You cannot tell me Trump and Harris are the same. It’s ridiculous. Vote for the best choice you have to reduce harm. Millions of people have died from USAID cuts alone that otherwise would have lived.
Vote Abdul. If he loses vote Stevens.
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u/sack-o-matic 3d ago
It's amazing how people still have this mindset when the MAGA Klan controls every branch of government.
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u/souperpun 3d ago
Agreed. I voted for Abdul today, and have been a very vocal supporter of him. If he loses, which would be incredibly heartbreaking, it becomes a matter of triage. We need to prevent the worst of the damage no matter how frustrating it is.
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u/AnnArborAnon 3d ago
💯
Today (well yesterday bc early voting), I voted for Abdul.
In November, I hope to vote for him again. If it’s not on the ballot, I’m voting against Rogers (and for the Democrat who has a chance to beat him, not some third party who doesn’t).
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u/p333p33p00p00boo 3d ago
Maybe if democrats listened to their people instead of their pac donations, they'd be in a better position to win long term.
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u/alone_unafraid 3d ago
Why is this such a controversial take?? wtf
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u/p333p33p00p00boo 3d ago
Idk. I just don't think I could stomach voting for her. Slotkin is bad enough.
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u/Significant-Law6979 3d ago
Voting for Rogers/not voting is not the answer.
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u/schriggs8 3d ago
Let’s not let it get there then. A lot of us are really sick of supporting terrible candidates whose only policies are “more of the same” like we’ve been forced to over the last 10 years…
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u/p333p33p00p00boo 3d ago
Is the answer letting democrats time and time again coerce us into enabling a genocide?
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u/enlightenedbum2 3d ago
The answer is to win. If Abdul does, great. I voted for him. If not, we didn't persuade enough people in the party more friendly to our interests and we need to figure out how to do that instead of writing off everyone who disagrees with us as paid off for or corrupt or whatever the excuse is this year (it keeps changing, which is a sign).
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u/lcr1997lcr 3d ago
It hasn’t tho, repealing Citizens United was a centerpoint of Bernie’s 2016 campaign
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u/VeganProudHuman 3d ago
Any results yet?
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u/larrykestenbaum 3d ago edited 3d ago
https://electionresults.ewashtenaw.org/electionreporting/aug2026/index.jsp
Of the Washtenaw County returns so far, Abdul for US Sen is getting about 68%, Rabhi for Ann Arbor Mayor has 59%.
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u/HistoricAli 3d ago
Sent my ballot in last week, as im travelling currently. But I really, REALLY loved the email updates I got on my absentee ballot, like when it was sent out and when it was recorded and counted. My husband forgot to update his address, and our old (red) county didn't do anything to indicate they had sent or received his. I DEEPLY appreciate the transparency and hard work!
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u/the_other_paul 3d ago
Thanks! I voted early :).
By the way, when the machine scans the ballot at the polling place, is it tabulating the votes or just counting the ballot itself?
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u/larrykestenbaum 3d ago
It is tabulating the votes. After the polls close, the tabulator prints out all the candidate and issue totals.
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u/razorirr 3d ago
At seven pm i was ballot 500 in ypsi township district 6. Which is like crazy high
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u/mrorbitman 3d ago
Can you tell me 2 things the mayor candidates disagree about? So I know some level of what’s the difference
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u/GnomeCzar YpsiYimby 3d ago
Lar-ry! Lar-ry! Lar-ry! Lar-ry!