Very High Turnout in Manchester Area for Contentious Mid-Term Elections

Yesterday’s mid-term election held some surprises, not the least being the large turnout. The Manchester area precincts reported voter turnout closer to the 2016 presidential election turnout, significantly higher than the 2014 midterm turnout. Sharon township had 70.64%, up from 58.49% in 2014; Freedom Township had 72.04% turnout, up from 62.03% in 2014; Bridgewater Township had 69.11% turnout, up from 55.76% in 2014; Manchester Township had 66.41% turnout, up from 50.14% in 2014, and the Village had 62.35%, up from 49.68% in 2014.

Gretchen Whitmer and Garlin D. Gilchrist II have been declared the winners of the governorship of Michigan, beating Bill Schuette and Lisa Posthumus Lyons, 54% to 44%. In Washtenaw County overall, Whitmer won by a large margin, 71% to 26%. Sharon Township voted for Schuette 51% to 49%. Freedom voted for Schuette 51% to 46%. Bridgewater voted for Schuette 54% to 42%. Manchester Township voted for Schuette 54% to 43%, while the Village voted for Whitmer 58% to 38%.

Democratic US Senator Debbie Stabenow defeated her Republican challenger John James 52% to 46% and will retain her seat.

While Democrats are projected to retake the US House of Representatives, our US Congressional Representative Republican Tim Walberg is retaining his seat, with 54% of the vote to his Democratic challenger Gretchen Driskell’s 46%. This rematch turned out closer than the 2016 race, in which Walberg won by 15% points

The races for Attorney General & Secretary of State have both gone to the Democrats.

In addition to the flipping of the governor, a seat much closer to home flipped. Manchester resident and Democratic candidate Shanon Beeman won the District 3 County Commissioner seat, edging out fellow Manchester resident and Republican candidate Melanie Weidmayer by just 212 votes with 9,888 votes for Beeman to 9,676 votes for Weidmayer. Beeman will be replacing Republican Alicia Ping, currently the only Republican on the nine-member county commissioner board, turning the board solidly Democrat. 

Republican Lana Theis has won the State Senator 22 District seat and will be replacing Republican Joe Hune. Theis, with 55% of the vote, defeated Democrat Adam Dreher who received 42% of the vote. 

While the village voted majority Democrat and the four townships voted majority Republican almost without fail, one notable exception is the support Democratic incumbent State House Representative for the 52nd District, Donna Lasinski received in the Townships. Lasinski will be retaining her seat receiving 60% of the vote while her Republican challenger, Manchester resident Teri Aiuto’s received 39%. Lasinski won the Village 61% to 38% and Freedom Township 51% to 46%, as well as narrowing the gap compared to other races in the remaining townships.

Four school board candidates ran for three positions and in the end it came down to 13 votes. Challenger Michael Tindall with 1,968 votes, school board member Rebecca Harvey with 1,859 votes and school board member Michael Austin with 1,580 votes edged out school board member Kim Blumenstein who received 1,567 votes.

All four proposals on the ballot have passed as well as passing in all of the Manchester area precincts including Washtenaw County Proposal 1, a renewal of the parks millage; State Proposal 1 to legalize Marijuana, State Proposal 2 to authorize a redistricting commission, and State Proposal 3 to make voting easier.

Note: The numbers used are the best numbers available at the time of press, but may not be final!

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.