Storm power outages cause some issues at Branch County polls

BRANCH COUNTY — Early morning storms Tuesday tested the voting system, with power losses at polls in the southwest section of the county two hours after voting started.

As heaving thunderstorms moved across the county, 3,300 Consumers Energy customers lost power, including in Noble, Bronson, Gilead, and Bethel townships polling locations.

Consumers Energy restored power to all locations after an hour and 15 minutes.

Noble Township Clerk Heidi Metzger said battery backups worked on all the computers and tabulators to keep them running.

Voting continued even without power at Pleasant Hill Church, which Noble Township used.

“The battery on the polling book only lasted about five minutes,” Metzger said. “We got out the paper books.”

Once power returned, “We transferred the information to the (computerized) polling books,” the clerk said.

Bethel Township used its new town hall for the first time for an election. Clerk Lori Brewer said battery backups worked well.

Township officials brought a generator to the Snow Prairie Road locations to restore all power.

Elections clerks said cellphone flashlights allowed them to see until the generator was connected.

For the first time in memory, election clerks used modern bathrooms instead of portable toilets for an election after moving half a mile down the road from the century-old hall.

Gilead Township also had amenities for its first election away from the old Grange Hall, which had been used as a town hall for over 100 years.

The new building shared with the Bronson Fire Department satellite first station does not have a generator for the township.

Clerk Branden Billman went home for one of his generators to use.

Bronson lost power, but the city hall generator kicked on within two minutes.

None of the clerks expected the outage to delay closing the polls and counting votes at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

The Daily Reporter will post online the results of the Branch County races and millage elections as soon as they are available.

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Voters Tuesday decide four county commission races and the race for sheriff in the Republican primary with no Democratic qualifiers on the ballot.

— Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Storm power outages cause some issues at Branch County polls