HOW ORCHARD LAKE VOTED 11/06

In my post following the August primary I questioned whether the number of votes on the Republican ticket really indicated political party preferences in our city. Last Tuesday's results support what I said then.

While Orchard Lake voters remain heavily Republican, Gov. Granholm got four out of every 10 votes cast in Orchard Lake.

Here's how our voting compares with the county as a whole:

First, we had better turnout -- 68.29 per cent of the city's registered voters participated. Countywide turnout was only 58.61. (This was called a "heavy" election but I wonder why so many voters didn't care enough.)

Absentee voting continues to be very popular. Fully one-third of Orchard Lake's 1,206 voters on Tuesday were absentee.

Now, here's how our votes compare with the whole county (or in some cases with the whole district in which legislative candidates were running). The percentages are shown for the winning side in each case. The first number is the county or district total; the second is Orchard Lake. Example: Granholm got 54.03 per cent of all Oakland votes but only 40.75 per cent of Orchard Lake votes.

GRANHOLM 54.03/40.75

STABENOW 53.30/41.22

KNOLLENBERG 51.53/64.09

SPECTOR (county commission) 50.93/34.73

PROPOSAL 2 (ban affirmative action) 57.15/62.91

Finally, voters did discover that three of us were running for City Council, but since there was no contest and this was low on the ballot, many voters ignored it. Among the 1,206 voters, barely 700 cast Council ballots. Nevertheless, I and my fellow councilmembers (Pete Russ and Jerry Kosmensky) thank you for your support.