Election officials stationed at the Clinton County Welcome Center early voting location last Thursday gathered around as Clinton County Clerk Nathan Collins worked to get one of the ballot scanners ready for use shortly after the voting location opened.  A machine that had been originally used at the location had jammed earlier in the morning, and Collins was a to replace the unit, which took only a few minutes.  Voter turnout was light Thursday morning at the early voting locations for the election that only included a handful of primary races for state offices.
As far as early voting in Clinton County, during the three days at three locations that early voting was available, Collins told the Clinton County News that 572 people cast ballots, with another 30 voters being counted as absentee in early machine voting.  He added that 224 paper absentee ballots had been mailed out for the primary election, and as of Tuesday morning, 180 of those had been returned.
The Clinton County News will publish complete Clinton County vote totals in next week’s issue.