Neither sleet nor snow nor rain can foil these Dearborn voters

By Laura Hipshire
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Here’s the scene: it’s Election Day, and this is Michigan. Put the two together and you often have a recipe for blustery weather and a low voter turnout.

Not so, though, at the Dearborn community of Henry Ford Village, where voters there are lucky to have their very own precinct.

“No one else from the City of Dearborn can vote at our precinct,” says Sandra Wyatt, Henry Ford Village’s community resources coordinator. Wyatt serves as a liaison between the City of Dearborn and Precinct 13, arranging for the delivery and pickup of voting equipment as well many other required duties before any given election. She also keeps voter registrations on file.

“There are 1,000 registered voters at Henry Ford Village,” says Cindy Galea, the special elections supervisor for the City Clerk’s office in Dearborn. “The volunteers there are wonderful.” Cindy Galea frequently visits the precinct on Election Day and assists in training the volunteers prior to the elections.

Call of duty
Marge Manspeaker has been volunteering for the precinct for the past two years. “I think it’s a person’s civic duty to answer the call, and I was happy to respond,” says the Henry Ford Village resident, who moved from Dearborn with her husband Bill.

Manspeaker and her volunteer cohorts take turns rotating various jobs during elections. Some of the jobs include staffing the Auto-MARK Voting Machines, which facilitate voting for people with any type of physical challenge; each machine also has a braille feature.

“We are allowed to get all of our equipment out the night before,” she says, which is helpful because the big day starts at 6:30 a.m. and ends around 9:30 p.m., with two one-hour breaks for lunch and dinner.

Manspeaker says having a voting precinct right on campus is a unique opportunity. “I think many people here would be voting absentee or not at all. This makes it extremely convenient for people to vote in person.