Voter turnout Monday varied around Majuro. While many of the outer island absentee voting locations showed heavy turnout and long lines, some Majuro regular voting stations saw relatively few voters.
The Rita ward voting station at Rita Elementary School was prepared for 1,200 voters, the number registered. To accommodate the anticipated large number of voters, the RES voting station set up two lines for Rita voters, each line with 600 ballots available.
They didn’t need to, according to officials who worked the tables. Only about 400 voters showed up, just one-third of those registered.
In the meantime, other voting stations were jammed with voters. The outer island absentee lines at DES and MIHS, for example, were long for islands such as Ailinglaplap, Namu and Wotje. One voter remarked that she stood in line for two hours to cast her vote in the Wotje electorate that was located at MIHS. Contrast that with Rita voters who said they walked up to the table at RES, signed in, got their ballot, voted and were back out the door in a matter of minutes.
Read more about this in the November 22, 2019 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.