I’ve spent the afternoon in Calhoun County where we’ve seen strong turnout but no significant problems as voters cast their ballots.

The county clerk says turnout could be as high as 70 percent, compared with 63 percent turnout in the 2004 general election.

At Harper Creek Middle School in Emmett Township, workers reported lines out the door in the morning, but by late afternoon things had settled.

Lines went out the door starting in the late afternoon at the Cherry Hill Manor on Clay Street near downtown Battle Creek. Voter Tim Thompson told us the whole process took him around an hour — coming in around 4:30 p.m. and heading out the door at 5:30 p.m. Workers there said lines were even longer in the morning.

Once the polls close, our crew — photojournalists Ron Swanson and John Richard, field producer Joy Wellington and myself — will be headed to state Senator Mark Schauer’s election night event in Emmett Township. (He’s the Democrat challenging first-term Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg.)

Watch for a blog post on that soon.

So what have your experiences at the polls been like today? I went in around 11 a.m. and the process took me about 45 minutes.

Tony