“We just did not expect this big of a turnout because we had over 12,000 absentee ballots submitted to the city clerk already in East Lansing,” Bell said Tuesday morning. “Precinct 5 has over 2,500 voters so if anyone is gonna have a big day it will be us.”

While Bell said there had been a line at the Precinct 5 and 17 location, Shaarey Zedek Congregation, since polls opened at 7 a.m., many other precincts were quiet.

“It’s a toss-up, we have a demographic that’s different than most of town in that, we have a lot of student apartments north in this precinct and so if they voted early, then we’ll have very little show. But if they didn’t vote early or didn't vote absentee then we’ll have, usually for presidential, we have a big student turnout,” Precinct 17 chair Elizabeth Schwarze said.

At Eastminster Presbyterian Church, the birds chirping could be heard more than the submission of Ballots. The church is the location for Precinct 6, which reported no lines earlier that morning.

Precinct Chair Susan Godfrey said she and her staff were preparing for a busy and safe Election Day at Eastminster Presbyterian Church. 

“We’ve got supplies for cleaning and sanitizing between each voter,” Godfrey said. “We have masks and hand sanitizer available for the voters if they choose to use that.”

Most morning voter turnout numbers were relatively low for many East Lansing precincts, many reporting no waiting lines within the first two hours.

Precinct 2, at Martin Luther Chapel in EL, reported no lines as of 7:45 a.m.

Precinct chair Sam Underwood said pollers at Martin Luther Chapel are taking many safety precautions with hand sanitizer for voters and gloves and face shields for pollers.

“I think this is going to be not as jam-packed,” Underwood said.

Precincts 3 and 11 are both located at the East Lansing Hannah Community Center. Precinct 3 started the morning with a line, despite the number of residents that voted absentee prior to Election Day. Precinct 11 reported a “bumpy start,” but expect more of a turnout later in the day. 

On-campus, Precincts 13 and 14 at IM East had a decent turnout in the earlier hours, given the lack of students living on campus. Precinct 15 at IM West is expecting steady voter turnout throughout the day as well, despite dealing with early minor issues.

Precincts 9 and 10 located at Edgewood United Church already had a steady flow of voters coming in and out during the early hours of the day.

The MSU Union, Precinct 12, also had a few early morning voters. It's usually a popular spot, specifically for on-campus voters. But on this election day, it was noticeably more empty.

"We've had in the past, long lines all the way around the hall. Since we don't have so many people on campus I don't expect that," Cathy Scott, Precinct 12 chair said.

During the 2016 election, voter turnout at the MSU Union totaled 954 of the 1,317 registered voters at that precinct. This gave it a 72.44% turnout rate, placing the location as the 12th largest number of reported voters among the city’s 17 precincts.

Campus-wide, there was a 72% voter turnout in 2016, compared to 66.9% turnout in all of East Lansing.

Precinct chair Cathy Scott said she expects to see people coming in slowly throughout the day. With fewer students on campus as MSU made the switch to online classes this fall, Scott said she does not expect to see lines down the hall as they have in years prior.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Monday that she expects a safe election with slower results than usual.

Benson said it would take “no more than 80 hours to count absentee ballots submitted before 8 p.m. on election night."

This means complete unofficial results may not be announced until Friday. 

State News reporters Dina Kaur, Jack Falinski, Emily Bevard, Wendy Guzman and Sara Tidwell contributed to this report.