Long lines seen around West Michigan

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - After 13 hours of voting, Michigan polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

It was a long road leading up to Nov. 6, 2012. Nearly $2 billion was donated to presidential campaigns as candidates crisscrossed the country before the primaries and again before the general election. Michigan saw months of legal wrangling over whether each proposal should or could be on the statewide ballot. West Michigan specifically saw an eleventh-hour party-switch and a fake candidate.

And by Election Day, everyone was sick of seeing campaign advertisements and media coverage.

Long lines were the norm throughout West Michigan on Tuesday.

Tuesday afternoon, the City of Grand Rapids announced the average wait time at polling locations is 90 minutes. In a release, Mayor George Heartwell urged voters to be patient and promised that anyone in line when polls close at 8 p.m. will be allowed to cast their  ballot. "No one will be disenfranchised," he said in the release.

Later at Community Revival Center in Grand Rapids, where some voters waited for three or more hours to cast their ballots, Heartwell reiterated that those who were in line as of 8 p.m. would be allowed to vote even after the polls closed, no matter how long it took.

In Grand Rapids, city clerk Laurie Parks put much of the blame on the voters. Parks said her office knew that it would take longer than usual to vote on Tuesday and they made adjustments after reports came in about people waiting three to three or more hours.

They added more voting booths, more workers, and passed out sample ballots to those waiting in line in precinct 62 to help them prepare. Parks said she wasn't aware of anybody walking away without voting.

"It was taking voters voting in that precinct [62] longer than the average, said Parks. "We planned for an average time in the voting booth of between 10 and 15 minutes based on the longer ballot and the recommendations from the Secretary of State's office. However, the average voter....was taking between 20 and 25 minutes."

Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell also said the city will take a look at precinct 62 to see if any changes should be made in the future.

In Kent County, election official Sue DeSteiguer said long lines were seen at almost every polling place and they hope for a similar turnout to the 72% of 2008.

In Kalamazoo County, clerk Tim Snow told 24 Hour News 8 the phones were busy and the most common question was, "Where do I vote?" He hopes for roughly the same 65% voter turnout they saw in 2008.

In Barry County, Hickory Corners poll workers said they were so busy they ran out of ballots. Some voters cast ballots on sample ballots. Election workers from both parties will count ballots after polls close.  The ballots were those that included a millage question for Delton schools.

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Between 1788 and 1845, states set their own election dates, which brought nothing but chaos. At that time, the US was a mostly agrarian society, and November was a good time to vote -- the harvest was completed and winter hadn't yet set in.

Congress decided to set a specific date. They decided Monday was not good, since most people would have to travel on Sunday, the Sabbath. And Wednesday was a farmer's market day. So, Tuesday was chosen, and in 1845, it became law that the US election would be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

Increasingly, states allow -- and voters use -- early voting systems, either absentee ballots or showing up at an early polling station.

In 1960, 63.1% of registered voters went to the polls . In 2008, 56.8% of the voters cast a ballot. And even though the percentage was smaller, nearly twice as many people -- more than 132 million voters -- went to the polls than in 1960.